


The House in the Poppy Fields

by sky_fish



Category: Arashi (Band), Kis-My-Ft2 (Band), NewS (Band), V6 (Band)
Genre: Horror, Hounted House Horror, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Suicide Attempt, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 10:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 34,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5124851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_fish/pseuds/sky_fish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakurai Sho, a young editor, is pretty excited when he learns that he got assigned to exclusively assist the popular writer Ninomiya Kazunari and even moves into his house in the countryside. When strange things happen, he quickly has to learn though, that not only the writer and the other inhabitants of the house are a little strange but even more their home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The House in the Poppy Fields

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2015's je_trick_or_fic event on livejournal. Thank you very much for organizing this awesome event again! Thanks also to my gorgeous beta jtaytt for taking over the job despite being so busy with RL!

Gaping with an amazed look in his eyes, the young man behind the wheel of his crimson Nissan was astonished by what came to his view as he pulled his car up the driveway of his goal. He parked in the area that looked like it was meant to be the parking lot, pushed his sun glasses up and reached to the back seat to grab his bag. Then, he exited the car, closing the door and his eyes were glued onto a middle sized, traditional Japanese mansion, again.

The house was simply impressive. The area was quiet – except from the loud noises of the cicadas - the street that led from the nearby village to this, a bit secluded but so wonderful place, was narrow and rocky. The house was framed by an amazing garden with no fences, that it would have needed if it was in the city or a village. But here, it was allowed to romantically blend into the endless looking fields of crop and wild poppies surrounding it.

It was already late summer, but still pretty hot, despite the fact that the day hasn't even reached midday yet. After wiping a little drop of sweat from his forehead, the young man fumbled out of his hair the sunglasses that he had earlier pushed up, folded them and put them into the inner pocket of his jacket. Then he took a deep breath, shouldered his bag properly and started walking down the gravel path to the house’s entrance. He would get the rest of his luggage later.

The man allowed himself to take his time, admiring the well-kept garden lining the way, the perfectly shaped green bushes and trees with seemingly not one single leaf too much, the beautiful flowers. When he listened closely, he even could hear the distant sound of a small bamboo fountain that must be placed in the backyard of the mansion, breaking the cicadas' rhythm. If he wasn't here for work, the young man could almost think that he had just arrived at the most beautiful ryokan he had ever seen. Other than the fact that this wasn't a ryokan but the home of his new employer.

Coming to a halt in front of the entrance, the young man hesitated a bit before pressing the doorbell. He remembered the words of his boss, the chief editor at his publishing company.

 _"He's a bit strange,"_ his boss had told him, talking about one of the currently most popular writers of their company, who had requested for an exclusive editor who would also be willing to work for him as a personal assistant. The young man had willingly accepted the offer from his boss when he heard the name of the respective author, one of his most admired ones.

 _"He's a genius, but he's really a bit strange,"_ his boss had repeated then, but which writer wasn't at least a little strange? 

Being in this job for a couple of years now showed the young man that a little to a little more strangeness was actually the thing that made an author interesting, making him able to do what he or she did in a more interesting way than other people. It was part of their charm in his opinion, fascinating and essential. And he couldn't imagine it being too bad.

Honestly, the young man was looking forward to getting to know the writer of so many beautiful and melancholic stories. There wasn't much known about the writer since he liked to stay out of public, and so, the young editor was pretty curious and excited about the upcoming meeting, hoping that he would really be accepted for the job. The young man prepared himself by getting a few compliments ready about his most favourite stories by the author before he finally lifted his finger and pressing it against the doorbell.

A light chime echoed from the house and soon, the editor heard a set of rushed footsteps coming closer, doors being pushed open. His heart started pounding a little faster and he looked down on himself to check his appearance. He definitely wanted to make a good first impression on the writer after all. A hasty look at his watch showed him that he was exactly on time. He breathed in and out slowly to ease his nervousness.

Another set of rustling of footsteps later, finally it was the main door that was pushed open and then, the young man looked into the face of a middle-aged woman, adorned by a friendly, welcoming smile. She was dressed in a yukata, not too plain but something simple, over which she was wearing an apron. She immediately stepped aside to let the young man into the house. He bowed slightly before entering, greeting her politely.

"Sakurai Sho-san from Tokyo?" the woman asked and he nodded, pulling off his shoes to exchange for a pair of house slippers that the woman offered him. "Please come in, I was already waiting for you. I hope, you had a good journey, it must have taken you pretty long."

"Thank you very much, everything was fine," Sho answered, smiling friendly.

"Let me introduce myself," the woman said. "My name is Takashima Reiko, I'm the housekeeper, please come in and let me offer you some tea."

Sho obeyed and followed her as the woman tippled along a wooden corridor and led him into a room – either the dining room or a room just to welcome guests, he didn't know exactly. Shortly after the young editor knelt down and placed his bag next to him, Takashima served the tea with a beautiful white-green tea set, showing the beautifully drawn pattern of bamboo on the porcelain. The tea's scent filled the room and Sho gladly took the cup, even if he would have to wait a little to let the drink cool down before he would be able to drink it.

After the two had exchanged a few more words of small talk – Sho complimenting the wonderful house – Takashima finally wanted to go straight to the point. However, the editor was faster.

"Is Sensei…," he asked a bit shyly, wondering where the writer would be. It didn't seem as if he would join the talk for now and somehow, he was a little disappointed about it, his excitement from the moment before was drifting away a little.

"He's still asleep," the woman answered. "He seemed to have had a horrible night."

Sho frowned. "A horrible night? What happened?"

"You see… I should warn you anyway," Takashima admitted, looking a bit troubled. "He's often ridden by nightmares and has an uneasy sleep."

"Oh."

"So, since he will only join us later, please let me tell you about your tasks of your job here, first."

Again, the young editor nodded and reached to his bag, pulling out a small note book and a pen, to take proper notes. Like always, he took his job very serious. After all, he would be in charge of one of Japan's most popular writers. As soon as he was ready, giving the woman sitting opposite of him an anticipating look, she started to explain his duties to him.

"As you might know from the job description, you weren't only appointed as Ninomiya Kazunari-san's exclusive editor, but also as his personal assistant. He will explain the details to you later but to sum it up, it will mean that you are responsible to make sure that he meets his deadlines. He can be a bit forgetful about that but I'm sure as his editor, you'll know his schedule by heart anyway," the woman began. 

Sho nodded in agreement. Of course, as an editor, it was his main task to get an author's manuscript and to do everything for it and the respective writer, to meet deadlines. 

The woman continued. "You might not know yet but he usually writes his manuscript by hand. It will be your task to type it into the computer. Further, we want you to support him in his daily life as much as you can. To be honest, he's of weak health, he has a weak heart, a bad sleep and he has to take a certain amount of pills a day, please make sure that he really does so. He can be pretty moody, you might have to deal with that and maybe you can help him through the hard phases."

A bit surprised over what he had just learned about the admired writer, the young man quickly took a few notes. This was actually not really what he had expected but still, it was fine for him. Being an editor meant not only collecting a manuscript, but also accompanying an author if needed, supporting him, assisting him, helping him and even if it was just doing an errand he requested. To watch over him that closely might be a bit more than that, but Sho had been prepared for more tasks than the basic editor ones, since he accepted the offer for this job.

"You won't have to do any shopping or stuff since I am responsible for that or our cook can bring stuff with him, so you won't get sent out suddenly or something, don't worry. Also if you need something, feel free to tell us and we can get it for you. Of course you are free to go to the village too, whenever Kazunari-san doesn't need you. You will be living under our roof, but how you spend your free time, is completely up to you," Takashima continued and then she looked at Sho with piercing eyes. "However, what I personally consider as the most important... I believe that more than an assistant, Kazunari-san is in need of a _friend_ so I'll beg you not to hold back and be good friends with him, if possible."

Sho looked at the woman astonished, who was lowering her head in front of him to bow a little. Her words had sounded sincere and he had to admit that he wasn't expecting them. Nevertheless, he smiled.

With a friendly nod, he said, "I'd be deeply happy to become friends with Ninomiya-sensei."

"Thank you," Takashima lifted her head again and gratefully looked at the young editor. "If you are OK with it, I'll show you around now, Sakurai-san."

They stood up in agreement and left the room, Sho taking his bag with him. They just went a few steps when the woman slid open a door and the scent of something sweet and a nuance of lemon filled the young editor's nostrils. He breathed it in, a smile automatically adorning his face. It smelled just too delicious.

"This is our kitchen, you are allowed to take from the fridge whatever you want and if you want to cook by yourself, we won't hold you back of course," Takashima started and went a bit further into the spacious kitchen, until she reached the huge fridge that was actually opened. Only the hand of the one responsible for this was visible to Sho from his position, "But you are also highly welcomed just to join our meals, they are part of your salary, if you want to put it like that. Please let me introduce you to our cook, Fujigaya Taisuke-kun."

The huge door of the fridge finally got closed and a tall, young guy with tanned skin and brown, tousled hair turned to face Sho. Compared to the housekeeper, the young man, who couldn't be older than mid-twenty, didn't wear traditional clothes at all, but worn-out jeans, a black band t-shirt from a group the young editor had never heard of and he could even spot a piercing at the guy's ear. He seemed a bit out of place in this house, but just by seeing how skilfully he balanced some ingredients for the meal he was preparing, Sho could tell that the guy knew exactly what he was doing in a kitchen. A bit critical but also curious, the tanned guy eyed the newcomer from head to toes, humming an acknowledgement.

"Taisuke-kun, this is Sakurai Sho-san, from the publisher of Kazunari-san's work," Takashima said before she pushed the young guy slightly as he just kept looking at the editor. "Say hello to our new colleague."

Another critical look but then, Fujigaya placed the ingredients onto the kitchen counter, brushed them over a short apron he was wearing over his jeans and then reached out his hand to greet Sho. "Yo."

Sho smiled, a bit amused about the short reaction of the other but gratefully took his hand and shook it. "Hi, nice to meet you."

"I hope, you like lemon cake. It's almost done," Fujigaya said and resumed to his work.

"I can't wait to taste it," Sho answered friendly.

Then, Takashima gestured him to follow her out of the kitchen and they went down the wooden corridor, several rooms to their right while to their left there was a really nice and neat garden in the inner yard, surrounding a small pond, visible through the opened doors. On a big stone, Sho could spot the bamboo fountain he had heard from outside of the mansion earlier. The repeating sound of the wood getting filled with water by a runlet, emptying it and falling back onto the stone, empty, giving the signal of being ready to get filled again. The atmosphere was chilly but somehow, calming. Sho liked it.

"This is the living room, you can use it whenever you want to," Takashima pointed at several rooms that they passed, the doors of some of them closed, some of them opened. "Here we have one of Kazunari-san's studies – he likes to switch places once in a while, he says it stimulates his inspiration. This is my room," they turned a corner, now Sho could see the garden from another perspective. "Another room, Kazunari-san uses to play Go or Shogi in this one. The one next to it is his small personal library. I assume he will be OK with it if you use it, if you don't disturb him while he's in it."

Then, the housekeeper came to a halt, just before they were about to turn another time, following the square formed line-up of rooms. The woman pointed to another room, somewhat in the middle of the upcoming set of rooms. The door was closed.

"That is Kazunari-san's bedroom," she said, lowering her voice a little. "It's possible that you will hear him scream at night once in a while due to his nightmares but be assured, you won't need to worry. I suggest, if you are too light a sleeper, you should use some earplugs."

"I will sleep here in the house too, right?" Sho asked, just to confirm. He was wondering, which room would actually be his.

"Yes, you can use the empty room next to Kazunari-san's as to your liking," she pointed at the room just around the corner in front of them and slid the door open, trying not to make too much noise. Her voice still lowered so that she wouldn't wake up the writer who was probably still sleeping next door. She continued, while letting the young editor into the room and pointed at several things. "It's equipped with a futon, a desk, closet, shelf, a small television – but it might not work properly sometimes – and you are free to ask if you need something else and we'll see what we can do."

"Thank you very much," Sho answered, his voice lowered too. Taking a proper look around, he had to admit that the room was pretty spacious – like most rooms in this mansion, probably – but it looked comfortable nevertheless. He immediately let his bag drop on top of the desk. "It looks really nice."

"You are free to do your own laundry but since I'm doing mine and Kazunari-san's already, I can offer to take care of yours too, if you want to. I will also clean your room once a week, but it's your obligation to keep it tidy," the woman explained.

Sho looked at her, a bit surprised. That honestly sounded like a really good offer and he gladly took it, smiling. Takashima just brushed it off, she was used to it, it was her job after all and since the young editor would live here with them, it was just a natural step.

"I'll do my best not to create too much work for you, Takashima-san," the young man said.

"Good. Please come with me, there's still a bit left," Takashima said and they continued their little tour.

Passing the writer's door, the housekeeper whispered that the next room was usually empty and that Sho wouldn't really need it or even find it interesting since nothing important was kept in there. Unconsciously, Sho lifted his hands to rub his arms as he felt a bit cold suddenly. Must be an air draft, he thought, hurrying after the housekeeper who now passed a staircase which was leading to the next floor. There was only the attic, Takashima told, nothing interesting up there, just old stuff, like in every attic. A few more rooms, including the bathroom got shown to Sho and then, they returned the same way they came.

"What about Fujigaya-san?" Sho asked curiously. "Isn't he living here too?"

"No, Taisuke-kun lives in the village, on weekdays he arrives early in the morning after doing grocery shopping on the market and he will stay until after dinner. On the weekends, I am the one cooking for us," she explained. "You are free to help and join me," she smiled at him and Sho smiled back. "Ah, it looks like he got up."

Takashima looked in the direction of the writer's bedroom and indeed, that moment the door slipped open and someone stepped out onto the wooden corridor before sliding the paper door close again. Sho pulled in some air sharply, feeling the nervousness from before, which he had lost over since being interested in the new surroundings, returning. So finally, it was the time to meet him. Ninomiya Kazunari, the great author.

"Come with me, I'll introduce you," the woman said joyfully and pushed Sho a little further. "Kazunari-san! Good morning! How are you doing today?"

The man in the corridor turned around, facing the two of them and Sho knew that he was staring at the other, in surprise. The man in front of him was dressed in a white shirt and plain black sweatpants, bare feet and he was wearing a light, ultramarine blue haori over his clothes. His black hair seemed straight, but also as if it needed a haircut soon and it was also a bit tousled, probably still from the sleep. Sho didn't know if it was because of the baggy clothes or because of the man's statute, but he looked very thin and kind of small – even smaller than himself. He was pale but had an incredible smooth skin. His eyes looked small and tired, but deep and mysterious. 

Carefully studying his face, Sho only then realized how surprised he was about how _young_ the author actually looked. Almost like a teenager, someone completely contradictory to what he had imagined the writer of those stories, which he partly knew by heart, to look like. Also Takashima's description of a weak health had made him assume that he'd be meeting someone much older but now here they were and the editor was stunned.

"Reiko-san," the slightly weak sounding voice of the man in front of them said. "Good morning. Everything's fine so far, thank you. A new face?" he looked directly into Sho's eyes and the young editor held his breath.

"This is Sakurai Sho-san from Pappilon Publishing," Takashima finally introduced him. "He's the one who will be your personal editor and assistant from now on."

Ninomiya looked at him, letting his eyes wander over the newcomer. "Ah yeah… I remember, the one Kato-san recommended, right? I forgot, he's supposed to start today."

Finally, Sho found back his composure and even if the author seemed to have forgotten about his arrival, he enthusiastically bowed in front of him before giving a proper greeting. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Sensei!"

Ninomiya suddenly sighed annoyed and a bit irritated, the young editor looked at him, wondering what he has done – or said – wrong in the short amount of time.

"What was your name, Sakurai-san?" Ninomiya asked, scratching his head. "Don't call me "Sensei", I'm not a teacher or anything."

"But you're a respectable writer, you deserve the title," Sho protested.

"I'm not respectable, Sakurai-san. Just call me by my name," the other said in a serious tone.

"Ni-Ninomiya-san…"

"How old are you, Sakurai-san?" the writer continued questioning.

"29," the other answered.

"Then you're older than me…," Ninomiya concluded. "I'd appreciate if you addressed me less politely, please."

"Eh? Really?" Sho was surprised about the other's reaction. As it was, a writer who didn't like getting addressed with the "sensei" title was pretty seldom, indeed, but someone who asked him to address him even less politely than the standard, was definitely new for him. He hesitated a little but then, he tried again. "Well, then... with the -kun?"

"That's better," the other nodded.

"But…"

"No but. It's fine, OK? Don't make me feel uncomfortable," Ninomiya gave him a demanding look.

"I'm sorry…,” Sho had almost believed that the author would finally give him a smile, revealing this all as a joke but he waited for nothing. The other man was deadly serious. "Then it's... Ninomiya-kun," he bowed again a little. "Please call me Sakurai-kun or Sho-kun, as you please."

"Works for me," the other then nodded before turning to Takashima. "What's that smell, by the way?"

"It's good, isn't it? Taisuke-kun is preparing some lemon cake," the housekeeper smiled genuinely. "Let's go try a piece of it over some tea," she suggested and Ninomiya sighed again. However, he seemed to follow the woman as she started their way back to the room which Sho was welcomed in in the beginning. Sho followed them too, of course.

~*~

During tea, Sho found out that the writer wasn't much into sweets, and so he only ate half of his portion and then gulped down some pills with his tea. The young editor on the contrary, found the lemon cake so delicious that he even asked for seconds from Fujigaya, who seemed pretty proud of his creation and gladly offered him more.

They sat together at the table, the young cook not really joining the conversation, so was Ninomiya, even if this was supposed to help them to get to know each other a bit better. However, the writer seemed a bit gloomy and completely lost in thoughts, which Sho assumed he could be plotting one of his stories, or maybe he was simply bored by Sho. Of course, the latter hoped that this wasn't the case but he would have about one month to prove himself to the author. At least that’s what Takashima told him provided nothing bad happened which would justify ending their work relationship earlier, Ninomiya would make his final decision on hiring the editor as his personal assistant or not, after one month. Additionally, Sho was free to decide if he wanted to stay or not, too, of course. Nobody would force him to stay if he found something not fitting and the man thankfully accepted the consideration.

Takashima told him a bit more about the rules in the house (which weren't that many and not hard to follow, Sho was just advised not to dig into the privacy of the other inhabitants and not sneak around) and a few more details about the nearby village. After the conversation ended, Sho announced that he would go out to his car and pick up the rest of his luggage. He then asked Ninomiya directly, if they could have a talk about the most urgent upcoming deadlines for the publishing company afterwards. After taking a few seconds to actually realize that the editor was talking to him, the writer then told him that they could meet in his study, he had to work on something anyway.

Sho thanked Fujigaya for the delicious cake and Takashima for the introduction to the household and hurried outside to get his stuff that he immediately brought to his new room. He took his laptop with him as well as some sheets of paper he had received from his chief editor. A guideline on which projects had to be discussed with the author as well as a few things for Ninomiya.

Soon after, Sho knocked a bit nervously on the wooden frame of the closed paper door leading to Ninomiya's study that was next to Takashima's room. Just after the second knocking, he heard a murmur and assumed that it meant he was allowed to go in. He mumbled a "sorry for the intrusion" as he entered, but Ninomiya didn't react at all. The writer was sitting crossed-legged on a cushion on the floor, bent over a low table, filling manuscript paper in a very neat handwriting and pretty high speed. The paper was spread all over the table, some of the already filled papers even fell to the floor. Sho didn't dare to say anything more, not wanting to disturb the writer in his obvious creative process, so he just sat down to wait, close to the wall were he found another cushion and put his stuff right next to him.

He pulled in some air, as if he had forgotten to breathe so far and continued looking at the small hunkered figure, which was still all over the table, the scratching sound of the fast pencil scribbling filling the room. Ninomiya looked fully concentrated and it was obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing. From time to time he snatched some of the other papers, seemingly making some notes, additions, or corrections in really neat handwriting. It looked pretty chaotic on and around the table, but the writer didn't seem to mind at all, he knew what to find and where, which Sho found highly fascinating and admirable. It was a really interesting scene to watch.

The assistant didn't count the minutes and so he completely lost track of time but then, Ninomiya seemed to have finished his flash of creativity. Now, he looked at his work, re-reading his writing, taking his time. Then he gathered all the spread papers, scribbling something in each right upper corner and sorted them until he had only one stack of papers left. He sighed, looking at it again before putting it down and then he turned around, facing the young editor who was still looking at the writer with big eyes.

"I've done. You can speak now," Ninomiya simply said in his low voice, gazing at him with his former dreamy look, having lost the focus that he had shown just right now when he was working on his writing.

"Uhm… Ah, yes," Sho tried to collect his thoughts and hurriedly reached for his stuff, opening the laptop and quickly starting the system while he sorted some of his own papers. "I wanted to talk to you about your projects and the approaching deadlines. Kato-san gave me your current schedule. Are you aware of all the deadlines?"

He handed Ninomiya a few sheets of paper while he logged into his e-mail account to check if there were any more incoming mails from the chief editor that he would have to consider. The internet connection was pretty slow and so it took some time to check. In the meantime, the writer had looked through the list, which showed not only a deadline for his serial publication that was currently running in the literature magazine of the publisher, but also some smaller stuff, like an essay for a special issue and the deadline for answering a few questions for an interview that were attached to the list. Since the author kept his private life pretty much shut away, he never accepted interview requests that actually involved him talking to an interviewer or in front of audience and he never revealed too private information. But he didn't mind sharing some of his views with the outside world in written form.

"I'm not. I don't even know what day it is today," Ninomiya just said and Sho wasn't even surprised.

He knew from Kato, that the chief editor had to regularly call the author by phone for check-ups, which seemed to have helped to get everything in time usually, and Takashima had told him before that she had tried to keep track of his deadlines too, but in addition to all her other tasks, it had been a bit much. However, this would be Sho's duty from now on, he had to tell the writer about his deadlines, if needed he had to even tell him the date of the current day and the exact time, when the other asked.

"OK, no worries, there's still time for everything," Sho said. "However, Kato-san told me that a first draft of the new chapter of your series is due by the end of the week. Was it what you have been working on, earlier?"

"No. And the draft isn't ready yet," Ninomiya answered calmly.

"I see, is it in an early state?"

The writer replied in the same calm tone as before. "I have nothing for it, yet."

This answer made the young editor a bit nervous, indeed. "But the deadline…"

"I don't like serial publishing," the author then suddenly stated.

"Excuse me?" Sho asked surprised.

"I said, I don't like serial publishing," Ninomiya repeated.

"But isn't it nice to reveal a story bit by bit to the readers?"

"You didn't understand what I meant, Sakurai-kun," the writer looked down onto the table at the stack of papers he had just put there a minute ago. "I'm not talking about the serial releases themselves, I don't mind in which form my stories get published but I don't like how I have to work on them. I'd prefer my stories not to get published in pieces, not if I haven't finished my writing. I can't add changes later on and it limits my abilities. This is the last time I'm doing such a format in this manner."

Sho stared at him, surprised that the other had spoken so much and so honest with him. But he didn't get the other's intention, did he only want to state his thoughts or did he want to use it as an apology for probably not meeting the deadline?

"I see your arguments… and I'll tell Kato-san if you wish, for the next project. Nevertheless, we have to meet a deadline," Sho dared to point out again.

"I know."

"Will you be able to meet it?" the young editor hoped that he wasn't too pushy.

"We'll see. I feel blocked."

This was bad, Sho thought, writer's block could be poison for a writer as well as his editor and the publishing company too, in the long run. He gulped. He didn't expect having to deal with such a hurdle in the beginning of their working relationship.

"Since when?" the assistant dared asking.

"I can't remember," Ninomiya murmured but stood surprisingly calm. No comparison to other authors who often had to fight a nervous breakdown when they weren't able to write something in time. "And I don't know for how long it will be…," his focus on the conversation seemed to slowly slip away again.

"Do you need any help?" Sho asked hurriedly and to his surprise, he immediately had the writer's full attention back. "I mean, please, let me know if I can do anything to help you, I'm here to assist you after all."

Ninomiya looked at his assistant, his body frozen, his eyes widened, as if he was surprised by Sho's offer and for the first time since they met, the editor had actually the feeling that the other fully recognized his presence. There was a short flickering in the writer's eyes but faster than Sho could name it, it had vanished and Ninomiya dropped his look again.

"Thanks," he simply murmured.

Sho was a bit irritated but he wanted to try keeping the conversation going, so he asked the question that was burning under his finger nails since the moment he entered the room. "So… what were you writing just now, if I may ask?"

"A new story."

"Oh, really?" the assistant asked, excited, and he had to admit that he was highly curious now. "What is it –"

"I'm not ready to talk about it yet," the author quickly cut him.

"Alright. I'm sorry for asking."

"No need to be. Just… don't ask. I'll show you once I think it's something ready to be shown."

~*~

"He said, he has a writer's block over the new chapter," Sho told his chief editor over the phone in the evening, while sitting in his room and trying to browse the internet which didn't work too well due to the bad connection that he was already aware of.

 _"Then do something about it,"_ Kato replied in a serious tone.

"You know it's not easy to get a blocked author to write, how can I do that without putting pressure onto him?" the young editor asked, slightly unnerved.

He had tried to motivate Ninomiya in the afternoon, to continue working on his series but the other had just ignored his comments about it. Instead, the writer at least finished the essay, which Kato was waiting for and the chief editor appreciated it and asked Sho to send it to him immediately.

_"That's the thing, you have to put pressure onto him. Some people can't work properly without pressure."_

"You're too strict and a bit radical in this aspect if I might say," Sho pursed his lips.

His boss protested immediately, knowing exactly that his employee was referring to a specific case. _"It wasn't my fault that Yasuda stopped writing. It was his decision."_

"But you almost drove him insane with your pressuring methods," the other dared to point out.

 _"That's your personal opinion, Sakurai,"_ Kato snapped back. _"And look who is a chief editor now while you're still in the lower ranks, although we entered the company almost at the same time."_

Sho chuckled. "I don't _want_ to be chief editor, just so you know. I'm very happy with my current position."

 _"We'll see how happy you'll be in a few months when working together with a writer almost day and night,"_ the chief editor said. _"I recommended you for this job because I know you'd be the most suitable. You have the much needed patience with such people and you're a seriously good guy. But just drop out in case it becomes too stressful, nobody will blame you."_

"I have no intentions of dropping out," Sho said casually, and smiled when finally the website he had tried to access for the nth time, seemed to work. He could proudly say that despite being in a new situation, the day had come to a pretty good end. He had the chance to assist one of the currently most popular writers, he even was able to witness his admired writer Ninomiya Kazunari devoting himself to a creative moment. Despite the young man seemingly not being the most talkative, they had also exchanged quite some words already and he had the feeling that the two of them would get along just fine.

 _”Sakurai? You're still in the line?”_ Kato's voice reached the editor's ear. He had almost forgotten their conversation.

“Ah, yeah, I'm sorry, I was checking something on the net,” he apologized. "However, you're right, he might be a little strange but... he's also...," the young man searched for the right word.

_"Fascinating?"_

"Exactly." Furthermore, the mansion he was living in from now on was just stunning beautiful and the meals that the cook, Fujigaya, had prepared had been more delicious than in Japan's most expensive luxury restaurant. No, Sho didn't plan to end his stay here too early.

_"I know. However, I don't care about your methods but you are responsible for getting him to meet the deadlines, you get it?"_

Sho nodded. "I get it."

 _"Good night then, Sakurai and good luck. Keep me updated about the deadlines!"_ the chief editor said strictly.

"Good night," the other answered and hung up.

He put his phone next to his laptop and took a closer look at the site on this computer screen. It was one of his bookmarked pages, showing tips and tricks for writers and other professionals in the publishing field. Sho swore he'd eat a broom if he couldn’t find some method that he could use to help Ninomiya to overcome his writer’s block. He scrolled down the page and started reading.

In the end, his researches had lead the young editor to other topics on the internet and it was already past midnight when Sho was about to fall asleep in front of his computer. When his connection started sucking even more than before and even his computer screen seemed to be having problems, he finally gave up. While rubbing his tired eyes, he closed the computer before getting up to get his futon ready. After a last glance at his cell phone to set the alarm and switching off the night lamp next to his bed, Sho finally cuddled underneath the blanket and hugged a pillow that he had brought along, ready to escape into the land of dreams.

His dusky sleep got suddenly interrupted by some noises from somewhere in the house and Sho snapped his eyes open again, just to stare into the deep dark. He was irritated. Did he just imagine this? Listening closely, the young man tried to remember where the noise had come from but it had occurred so suddenly that he didn't catch it at all. He stared into the darkness of his room for a few minutes but nothing happened and so his mind drifted back to sleep. Just when he was about to let his eyes fall shut, there it was again, a dull noise, something like a knock against wood and this time, Sho realized that the noise was coming from the room next door – Ninomiya's bedroom.

Another noise, this time it sounded like someone was slammed against the wall and the young editor could hear the painful moan of a man. Sho sat up straight, and even if he couldn't see anything, he turned his head to the wall that separated him from the next room. He remembered Takashima's words, the mention of Ninomiya suffering from nightmares. Maybe she hadn't told the whole truth and the writer was actually a sleep walker or something, Sho wondered.

"Leave me alone... leave me alone!" Sho heard the author's voice from the other side of the wall and started to seriously worry.

He frowned, remembering Takashima telling him that he wouldn't need to worry about Ninomiya, whatever he might hear during night and that it’s better for him to stay in bed and ignore it. However, this seemed impossible for Sho. Those noises not only made it impossible for him to sleep, but also made him worry about Ninomiya. It sounded more like the young man had an unpleasant visitor rather than nightmares, or Sho didn't want to know what the other was dreaming about. When suddenly he heard another dull noise, followed by desperate sobbing, he wasn't willing to stay in his room any longer and do nothing and so, Sho reached his hand out to the night lamp next to his bed and switched it on again so that he could get up.

"Go away!" Ninomiya's voice could be heard, followed by the noise of something breaking.

Sho froze in his movement and then he could hear some hasty shuffling footsteps outside in the corridor. Just when he slid open the door of his bedroom, setting his bare feet onto the wooden floor, Takashima was passing him to reach Ninomiya's door. She quickly turned her head, looking at the young editor, surprised, and stopped short to face him.

"Sakurai-san, please, go back to bed," she said in a low voice.

"But... what about Ninomiya-sensei," the assistant asked worried, pointing at the door of the writer's room.

The housekeeper just shook her head and flashed him a slight smile. "Don't worry, just the nightmares. I'll take care of this. Sorry for waking you up. Good night."

She slid the door of Ninomiya's room open and closed it behind her, too fast for Sho to protest her rejection as well as to even take a small curious glimpse of the inside and so he had no choice but to stand here and look at the closed door. He strained his ears, trying to catch wind of what was going on in there right now. Still, he could hear Ninomiya's sobbing voice, his heart constricting at the image of the young author crying over something, mixed with the soothing voice of Takashima who tried to calm him down. No matter what caused the other dream stuff that made him to suffer and cry that much, the editor felt sorry for him. He couldn't even remember the last time that _he_ had a severe nightmare but he could remember the times when he was a child, ridden by nightmares too, regularly, convinced he would saw things that couldn't exist, and it had been his mother who had sang him lullabies then in the middle of the night to calm him down.

It took a while until the sobbing stopped and Sho had already entered his room again, lying down on the futon, trying to fall asleep, which now was even harder for some reason. His eyes opened, he stared up to the ceiling into the pitch black night and just listened to the slowly but surely disappearing sobs from the other side of the wall. The night fell silent again and after a few minutes, Sho could hear Takashima exiting Ninomiya's room and going back to her own. He waited for another couple of minutes and finally got up again, looking into the direction of the writer's room.

He wondered for a second, if he should go and check on him so he stepped out into the dark corridor again. He already had his hand on the paper door, ready to slide it open when he thought about a peaceful image of the other man sleeping calmly again. Maybe, he should better not disturb him. So in the end, Sho returned to his room to lie down again and soon after, he finally found some sleep too.

~*~

"Good morning, Takashima-san, Fujigaya-san," Sho greeted the housekeeper and the cook when he entered the kitchen the next day. He had allowed himself to sleep an hour longer than planned, considering the little sleep he had gotten the past night. He took a look around.

"Yo," came from the young cook, who whirled around in the kitchen, obviously in the middle of preparing breakfast.

"Good Morning, Sakurai-san, I hope you had a good night sleep," the woman answered friendlily and poured a cup of coffee that she offered to the young editor.

"Thank you," he gladly took the offered cup into his hands and let the fresh smell of coffee wake up his still a bit sleepy mind.

"I'm really sorry about the disturbance. To be honest, I had hoped that your presence in the next room to Kazunari-san might keep his nightmares away for a while, people said that changes in the environment could cause such a positive effect, but maybe we were a little too optimistic," the housekeeper continued, explaining. "There are no other free rooms at the moment, but if you wish, you can switch rooms with me," she then offered.

"Ah, no no, don't worry, there's no need for that," Sho just shook his head slightly. "I'm OK with it. And please don't apologize, it's neither your nor Ninomiya-sensei's fault that he suffers from nightmares. I just wish that there is something I can do to help him, I feel really sorry for him."

The housekeeper bowed slightly. "Thank you for your understanding, Sakurai-san. Please, just don't mention last night to Kazunari-san, he tends to forget his nightmares after waking up, thankfully. I don't want to remind him and he might feel ashamed in front of you if he knew what happened."

"Of course, my lips are sealed," the young editor promised with an understanding smile.

"Breakfast is almost ready, I'll bring it into the dining room. Can someone go get Kazunari-san?" Fujigaya asked, carrying two trays filled with bowls of rice, bread, a few fruits and vegetables and other delicious stuff for breakfast.

"Sure," Takashima nodded.

She was about to leave the kitchen, when Sho reached out to grab the sleeve of her kimono and made her stop. He put down his half empty coffee and looked at her a bit shyly. "I'm sorry but... may _I_ go and wake him up? I think, the closer I can get to him, the better, right?"

Takashima first looked a bit astonished at the words of Ninomiya's new assistant but then, she smiled widely. It had been her idea in first place, begging the young men to become friends with her master, so yeah, why not let him go wake the young writer? She nodded and Sho passed her with a smile while the housekeeper took some more stuff from the kitchen to bring into the dining room where Fujigaya was setting the table.

Sho strolled along the corridor, approaching Ninomiya's bedroom. He stopped short in front of it and knocked at the door, waiting for an answer. He listened closely for any noise coming from the other side of the door, but there was nothing. So he slowly slid it open and ventured into the room, his gaze immediately went onto the floor.

Ninomiya was lying there, the blanket wrinkled between his legs as the young man was curled up like a kitten on his futon. He was wearing a dark grey light sleeping yukata and his black hair was tousled, his face captured in a seemingly undisturbed sleep. The young editor knelt down in front of the young writer's bed and after examining his angelic face for a moment, he slowly reached out his hand to touch the writer's shoulder. He slightly shook it, while calling the man's name in a low voice, but the other seemed fast asleep, unable to hear his assistant trying to wake him. It was almost unfathomable that this was the man Sho had heard screaming and crying through the walls the last night. He looked so peaceful right now...

The young editor decided to give the writer just a few more minutes and stood up again, approaching the wooden door at the other end of the room which should lead outside to the backyard. He himself had opened his own balcony door just half an hour ago in order to let the sun and some fresh air into his room to wake him up. Maybe, this would work for the young writer too, he thought.

When Sho slid the door open and looked outside, the sun was hitting him. He lifted his arm to protect his sensitive eyes, squinting them for a moment. The sound of a small wind-chime hanging on the balcony joined the never ending concert of the cicadas in the garden and soon followed by the joyful laughter of children.

Sho frowned. He adjusted the position of his arm, trying to not get hit by the sun again and looked outside, the scenes and silhouettes of the garden slowly taking shape. He was a bit surprised when he spotted two young girls in the middle of the green landscape, playing with a ball. They looked alike, surely they must be sisters, if not twins, and while one of them had two adorably cute high ponytails, the other girl wore her dark black hair open, a hair circlet on top of it. Their cute dresses whirled around in the air from their movements and their smiles were all over the place.

Sho wondered where they came from, most likely they were kids from the neighbourhood getting drawn to the beautiful garden. "Hey, good morning," he said with a smile.

The two girls suddenly stopped laughing and turned to face him, wondering. The young man waved at them, friendlily, but strangely, they didn't answer to his gesture. Instead, they took their ball which had fallen onto the grass and as if they had planned it, they both started running away at the same time, quickly vanishing between the green leaves of the trees and exiting Sho's field of view.

The young man stayed behind, looking into the garden and wondered, if he looked that frightening that young girls would run away from him. It might be good if children living in the countryside were careful with strangers but somehow, his pride was a little hurt, since he had thought that he would be on good terms with kids. However, Sho sighed once and decided to forget about it, turning around to resume the task that had originally brought him here.

When his look fell onto Ninomiya who was still lying on his futon, Sho smiled as he could see the slight frown on the writer's face, caused by the sunlight falling on his face. He stepped closer to him again, bending down and patted the young man's shoulder.

"Good morning, Ninomiya-kun," he said in a friendly voice. "It's time to get up!"

Ninomiya growled and half-opened one of his eyes, just to throw a reproachful look at the intruder of his sleep. He growled again and turned around, facing the wall, obviously not willing to follow his assistant's wake-up call. Sho chuckled a bit and reached out his hand again to poke Ninomiya's back playfully.

"Breakfast is ready," he whispered, even if he wasn't sure if this would convince the other to get up. However, he stood in his position until the writer finally rolled over again, facing him.

His eyes a bit more opened, Ninomiya finally looked at his editor, still reproachful, and sighed deeply. "Are you going to wait in this position until I get up?" he then asked in a cracking morning voice that Sho just found adorable at that very moment. Almost as adorable as the cute crumpled face of the young man.

"I will," the editor answered with a broad smile.

"You're annoying," Ninomiya growled, squinting his eyes.

"I'm just trying to be a good assistant. You have a day of writing ahead so you should take a proper breakfast," Sho explained, not minding the other's complaining.

The writer didn't answer and took another few moments to get ready to get up. Sho waited patiently,  
just as he said, until Ninomiya finally sat up straight, yawning tiredly. The editor couldn't hide an amused smirk forming on his lips at the sight. He had to admit that the young writer looked totally cute like that, fighting sleep. After taking a few deep breaths and ruffling his hair, Ninomiya finally looked at Sho again, who just looked back at him, eyes widened.

"Give me that small box and the glass of water, please," the author finally said, pointing at the low table next to Sho. The assistant did as he was ordered and handed everything as requested to the other man who opened the box to reveal a few pills that he gulped down with a sip of water. "Thanks. And now please go and wait outside, I want to get dressed," Ninomiya said, looking directly into the other man's eyes.

"Oh," the other blushed a little. "Sure, I'm sorry. I'm going ahead to the dining room. See you there, Ninomiya-kun."

As announced, Sho left the room and quickly headed toward the dining room, settling into the same place as yesterday for the meals, taking another sip of his half-finished coffee which was almost cold right now. Immediately, Takashima bent toward him, a pot of coffee in her hands and offered him a refill that the other gladly accepted.

"By the way, who are the two little girls?" Sho asked, as he remembered the kids from before.

The housekeeper looked at him a bit wondering with a smile. "Ah, you mean those on the picture in the living room, I guess?" she asked as she put down the coffee pot after filling Ninomiya's cup, who was expected to join them soon.

"Uhm, yeah...," Sho didn't remember exactly the pictures in the living room from the tour through the house the previous day, but if the housekeeper was so sure, he assumed that it must be the same girls that he just saw.

"They are Kazunari-san's sisters," Takashima said.

"His sisters? Such young girls?" Sho gaped, putting down his coffee cup. "What about their parents?"

The woman suddenly made a slightly gloomy face. "Their parents... are dead."

"Oh...," the young editor realized. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Takashima shook her head slightly and smiled at him a bit awkwardly. "Of course not, I should have told you. But it's... kind of a taboo topic here, you know?"

"I understand," Sho nodded. "But why didn't you introduce us?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw them playing in the backyard," the young assistant explained. "First, I thought they were kids from the neighbourhood. I guess they were irritated with me since we didn't get introduced to each other."

"You saw them in the backyard?" Takashima asked him, as if she wanted to confirm what he just said.

"Yes. I was wondering because I didn't know who they were but when I greeted them, they just looked at me, ignored me and ran away."

"Are you sure, Sakurai-san?"

"Yeah, why? Aren't they allowed to play in the backyard?" the young man got slightly irritated, he didn't understand the problem.

But then, the housekeeper just waved her hand and smiled at Sho, as if to brush off the topic. "Ah, no, of course they are allowed to play there. I was just wondering about their behaviour. The little girls were really impolite. I'm apologizing for them and will scold them later."

"No problem, they are kids after all. I'm not mad or anything, I was just wondering. Aren't they taking breakfast with us?" Sho asked further.

The young cook who had started to divide some of the dishes just chuckled and told him casually that he had already made breakfast for the girls since they had gotten up so early in order to leave the house and go to play. Sho nodded, understanding, and smiled a little as he remembered his own adventurousness and motivation to discover the world outside when he was a child.

~*~

It was sheer coincidence when the young editor passed the kitchen a few hours later, on his way outside to his car as he wanted to quickly drive to the nearby village to buy something. The kitchen door was just a bit opened, not wide enough to spot what was actually going on in there just by walking by, but wide enough to listen to a few snippets of a conversation that was going on between the housekeeper and the cook. Sho heard his name when he had almost reached the entrance area where he wanted to put on his shoes, so he got curious, taking a few steps back until he was close enough to the half opened kitchen door to listen to their conversation.

"I can't believe it,” Sho could hear Fujigaya's voice. “Who could have known that he has such an ability?"

Takashima answered, trying to keep her voice low. "I'm surprised too. However, let's just go along with it."

"But this isn't what we expected. This is creepy and it's making things complicated," the young cook sounded nervous.

"Maybe not,” the housekeeper replied. “Kazunari-san does not want him to leave, I talked to him. He seems to be glad about his presence."

So they were really talking about him, Sho thought, frowning. Judging from just those few sentences, he had no idea what exactly those two were talking about...

"Fine. I guess we don't have another choice anyway. The most important thing is that Kazunari-san will be fine."

"Exactly."

When Takashima seemed to approach the kitchen door, Sho hurried away to the entrance door, quickly took his shoes and left the house. He didn't want to get caught eavesdropping after all. The conversation between Takashima and Fujigaya occupied his thoughts for another few hours, but soon, when the editor was back in the house and drowning in his work, and having to deal with Ninomiya's writer's block, he quickly forgot about it.

~*~

Sho should have taken the strange encounter with Ninomiya's sisters as a sign. Since soon after, he found out how problematic the situation with them was in this household. He barely saw the girls since they seemed to prefer being just the two of them, excluded from the rest of the world. They didn't participate in the daily meals, apparently eating at other times that Sho never seemed to witness, and if they interacted with the other people in the house, Sho didn't notice it either. He learned that the kids weren't going to school like others, they seemed to get home tutored by Takashima. However, the only time Sho seemed to meet the two sisters was when they were either teasing their brother or at night when they were used to creating a ruckus while every other normal person would sleep.

Sho was a patient man, but he soon understood that he would really need all his patience for being able to deal with those two scallywags. They were irritating him deeply for some reason that he couldn't fully grasp yet. However, they first got onto his nerves with an action that didn't only hinder Ninomiya's work, but also put him in danger and that frustrated the young editor completely. After all, he had made it his goal to be the young writer’s support, even to protect him if necessary, and not being able to do so felt like a huge failure.

It happened just a few days after Sho had started his work in the Ninomiya house. He had already gotten used to the morning routine of waking up a grumpy writer after drinking his own first cup of coffee. He had learned to deal with the writer's not so talkative personality and he had just as quickly gotten used to the immensely delicious food provided by the house's cook Fujigaya and the good care of the housekeeper Takashima. He just had not gotten used to Ninomiya's nightmares, which were still irritating him and making him feel sorry for the other, as well as the strange behaviour of the writer's twin sisters. 

The writer himself didn't have much to tell about them. In fact, usually he didn't pick up any of the topics, which Sho tried to talk to him about, even less if it was connected to something very personal, like family relationships and stuff. Sho accepted this, thinking that when they became closer friends as time passed, everything would come naturally together.

Sho couldn't get rid of the feeling though, that there might be a little too much secrecy between him and the writer, and hoped that the young man would open up to him soon. Ninomiya's sisters seemed to avoid the newcomer, when he spotted them along the corridor or in the garden, they just ran away as soon as their eyes met with Sho's and they didn’t to dare to contact their brother when the editor was with him. Instead, they seemed to approach their brother only when he was alone in one of his room, his study, the small library or even his bedroom.

Sometimes at night, Sho was sure that he heard some giggling from the room next door, and he was pretty sure that the girls – instead of sleeping, like normal children would at such times – were keeping Ninomiya from sleeping, which quickly started to annoy the assistant, knowing that the other man was fighting with his own sleeping troubles. However, Sho has received the order not to interfere in any of those situations, not when the children were doing things he thought they shouldn't, and also not when Ninomiya was suffering from nightmares again. Takashima would take care of him, just like the first night when Sho arrived, and Sho accepted this. For now.

When the accident happened, Sho was really close to losing his temper and if he had had the chance to scold the twins directly, he would have done so without thinking twice. However, when the editor has heard the loud noises coming from the library, followed by a scream from Ninomiya, and rushed there to see what happened, the girls had already vanished from the room, only the faint laughter of them running into the garden through the opened balcony door could be heard.

The young editor found Ninomiya buried underneath one of the bookshelves, the books spread over the whole room while the furniture itself had knocked over the writer, who cursed silently. Quickly, Sho freed him from the weight and helped him stand up again, looking at the author with worry in his eyes.

“Ninomiya-kun, did you get hurt?” the editor asked.

“It's nothing,” the writer tried lying at him, shaking his head, but the painful look on his face revealed the truth.

“Show me.”

Quickly, Sho found out that the writer had hurt his wrist when falling to the ground and trying to break the fall by finding support with his hands underneath him. Sho demanded the other man to show him his injury and took his hand carefully. His wrist seemed to be sprained and Sho cursed while he gestured the young man to follow him into the kitchen to get some first aid.

“It's nothing, really,” the young writer again tried to down play the incident. “It's not even my writing hand, so no need to worry.”

“It's not that I'm worried about your writing or non-writing hand, this was pretty dangerous, you could have gotten hurt much worse,” Sho said in a strict voice. “I know children like to play, but they seriously have to pay more attention to their surroundings. A library isn't a playground,” Sho grumbled while bandaging Ninomiya's hand.

“You're right,” the writer just murmured and the topic was finished for the day.

Nevertheless, smaller or bigger incidents involving Ninomiya and his sisters kept on happening in the house. It might be only the girls hiding their brother's pill box and driving Sho almost insane when he offered the writer to find it for him, and he spent almost the whole afternoon doing so until he found the box reappeared miraculously at the exact same spot from which it had vanished hours before. But they messed up with Ninomiya's manuscripts too, by spilling water glasses over his just finished work, making the pages crinkly and harder to read.

Sho especially cursed over the last one, because it was his job to type down Ninomiya's hand written scripts into the computer and get it ready to be sent out to Kato meeting a deadline the next morning for the final editing. The writer's handwriting was clear usually, even if pretty small, but the crinkly paper sometimes made it really hard to read it. In addition, the pencil written characters were also a little washed out.

The young editor had taken the pages with him into his room in the afternoon, fighting with the characters as he tried to type them into the manuscript document. The deadline was pressing and initially Sho was happy to have the young writer finishing his story but now this was taking much more time than he had expected. Furthermore, as if the crinkly paper wasn't annoying enough yet, his computer did not seem to work properly, the monitor switching on and off as it pleased, the keyboard was also not working properly, and Sho was utterly frustrated with all of these hindrances in his work. It was in the evening and already dark outside when suddenly not only his computer screen went black but the lights in his room also turned off after a bit flickering.

"Damned, that's not happening now, is it?!" Sho moaned, leaning backwards, his hands supporting his body on the tatami floor.

Fortunately, his computer was back on soon, the battery taking over the job and he quickly saved the document he was working on before shutting down the laptop. Better to save battery, if you don't know when electricity will be back and the thing was trolling him anyway. Sho took his cell phone and checked the time, showing him that it was about a quarter to 9. He sighed. Hopefully, the power would be back soon or he would be in deep shit if he couldn't finish his job before the deadline.

Sho allowed himself to lean back for a few minutes, taking a break and waiting for something to happen but somehow, it didn't and so, slowly he got a little nervous, sitting here in the darkness. He couldn't hear any noise from outside, but he wasn't surprised, knowing that Ninomiya had been tired the whole day and had went to bed as soon as he had finished the last page of his manuscript and taken a small dinner about two hours ago. Fujigaya had gone home since then too, like usual. Takashima was known to go to her room early too, most of the time, since she got up early in the mornings. So should the girls, Sho assumed. Well, should.

The lights didn't return and slowly but surely, Sho felt the time pressure from the closing deadline weighing more and more heavily on his shoulders, so he decided to check the power distribution board and see if he could get the electricity to work again. He took his cell phone, to use it as a flash light and went down the corridor. The wooden floor underneath his feet was shrieking and creaking slightly, very irritating noises, and Sho was wondering if it had always been like that. There wasn't any other noises in the house other than the wooden shrieks and Sho's breathing. Nevertheless, it felt strange somehow, the young editor didn't even know why though. He let his eyes wander through the darkness, the light from his cell phone lightening up everything enough for him just to make out his way but still the darkness was surrounding him, threatening to swallow him up.

Suddenly, Sho heard a distant chime and turned around quickly, his breath hitching, heart beating faster. He then realized that it must be the sound from one of the wind chimes hanging outside on the balconies. He listened closely but no further noise appeared through the darkness and he assumed that it was only a blow of wind outside in the gardens. He turned around again.

“Don't freak out on stuff like that, scaredy cat,” the young man murmured to himself and resumed his walk to the kitchen, which he arrived just a minute later, thankfully.

To test if the lights were really still gone, he pushed the light switch, once, twice, but just as expected, nothing happened. Darting his cell phone's light forward, Sho made his way through the room, remembering that Takashima, during their tour through the house, had mentioned that the distribution board was in the small storeroom after the kitchen. Sho approached the room, pushing the door open, causing another shriek on the floor. He cringed, cursing that suddenly every noise was so unbelievingly loud. It must be normal though, that his ears were more sensible now that his eyes were depending only on the small light from his phone.

The young man darted the light around, searching for the distribution board. He almost suffered from a heart attack as he freaked out on the sudden reflection of his phone's light from a pile of preserving jars on a shelf. It still took him a while before he found what he was searching for, behind a small curtain. He took a closer look, holding the device in his hand as close as possible and started pressing and shifting some of the switches, unsuccessfully. He sighed, deeply unnerved. This wouldn't work. Damned.

He was about to give up, turning around, when he suddenly pumped into something soft, letting a small scream escape from his lips. He dropped his phone, and the light ended up facing the floor. Suddenly, it was almost completely black around him again. He went down to his knees, trying to get the phone which had slipped away a bit farther than he had expected, nervously reaching his hand to it. He panicked a little when he heard some movements in front of him, not knowing what was in the dark.

“Hello?” he asked, his voice slightly cracking. “Hello, who is there?”

He might sound stupid, but he didn't care, this situation was freaking him out, especially when the person – at least he was sure that it was a person in front of him – didn't answer. Why that person wouldn’t answer to his question, the young man wondered, panicking. He again tried to get his cell phone, stretching his hand over the floor, and he slightly touched it with his fingertips, finally. He then froze, as he could _feel_ someone getting closer and eventually felt a hand – or something like that – grabbing his shoulder.

The editor pushed a little farther, finally being able to grab his phone and quickly darted it at the person in front of him. “I asked, who is there?!”

The person let go off his shoulder immediately and lifted an arm to create a shield against the small but bright flash light from Sho's phone. Sho's breath was hitching as he tried to make out more with the small light beam. He could spot a slender arm, clothes, a yukata?

“Sakurai-kun, calm down, it's just me,” a familiar voice finally said and the young man sighed in relief as he recognized the housekeeper immediately.

He let the light sink a little in order not to shine at her any longer, realizing that his hands were shaking slightly from the excitement.

"Oh my Gosh, Takashima-san," Sho said, his hand pressed against his fast beating heart. “Why didn’t you say something, I was almost freaking out here!”

"I'm sorry if I scared you, that wasn't my intention," the woman answered. “I was reading something in my room when the lights went out and since they didn't come back, I wanted to check here.”

"I already checked it, but it didn’t seem to work,” Sho said, disappointedly. “I was seriously surprised by the power outage. The weather seems normal…"

"Well, it happens pretty often out here without any visible reason," Takashima explained, trying too to switch on the main switch of the distribution board again, also without success. She sighed. "And sometimes it just doesn't work, no matter what we try and everything that's left is to wait until it's back by itself."

"Oh no… why today out of all days?" Sho lamented, frustrated. "I can't work like this, I have to type down Ninomiya-sensei's manuscript, how can I do so in the pitch black? And without internet connection I cannot sent Kato-san the material before the deadline…"

"You can drive to the village, have you been to _"Koyama's Coffee Shop"_ yet?” Takashima suggested, leaving the small storage room slowly and heading into the kitchen, followed by Sho. “It's called a coffee shop but the owner keeps it opened pretty long, since he more or less lives in the coffee shop anyway. He has internet connection there too."

"That sounds great!” Sho had to admit. “And he's really open at such an hour? It's almost 9!"

"I'm pretty sure, he'll be open at least two hours, maybe a little longer if you order something more and ask him to wait until you finished. Koyama-kun is a really nice fellow," the woman said.

"I guess, I'll give it a try, then," Sho decided. Everything was better than staying here, not knowing when the power would come back, maybe for the next few hours.

He accompanied Takashima back to her bedroom and wished her a good night before returning to his own room, gathering his stuff. With his laptop, Ninomiya's manuscript paper and his car keys, he then left the house, heading to his car and quickly drove the 10 minutes ride to the village. Fortunately, the housekeeper was right, _”Koyama's Coffee Shop”_ was still opened and the owner was even pretty enthusiastic about the new guest. Sho felt a bit guilty as he had to turn down the cheerful, friendly man's offer to talk a bit, but he seriously had to focus on his work so that he wouldn't have to sit there until the early morning hours. However, he couldn't turn down the offer to taste one of the owner's self-made eclairs and he didn't regret this decision.

~*~

Somehow, Sho had quickly adjusted to living in the Ninomiya household and he was proud to say, that with each passing day , he managed to get a little closer to the slightly estranged author. He still didn't talk very much, he never initiated a conversation if it wasn't for Sho to start one, and most of the stuff they were talking about was related to either Ninomiya's work, or books in general. Not that Sho minded, it was connected to his job after all and even in his spare time he enjoyed reading and talking about books a lot. So he was glad for every new tip the young writer could give him and happy with every conversation they could hold about one of his favourite books.

Ninomiya had soon allowed his assistant to join him in the library and he didn't even mind when the other was fascinated with watching him write. Or he didn't realize he was watching him, Sho wasn't completely sure, but he didn't care anyway. He was happy about being close to the person that he admired deeply for his beautiful but also often thoughtful and even educational work. Sometimes, it still felt like a dream that he was here, actually sharing his life with the writer, being able to follow him every day, and experience his creative flashes. It was fascinating to watch the young man when he was completely drowned in his thoughts and it was funny to watch his slightly childish reactions when Sho threatened to beat him in Go or Shogi, which the other finally had allowed him to play with him in some afternoons.

Sometimes, the two of them went on a stroll, either through the large gardens, or along the stony road framed with poppies and crop. When the wind was rustling through the fields, filling Sho's ears with the sound of summer and his nose with the smell of nature, he almost felt like being in a beautiful dream.

It was a bit disturbing though that those beautiful dreamy days seemed to turn into nightmares almost every night, as soon as darkness fell over the romantic, traditional country house. The creaking wood, noises coming from other rooms that Sho often couldn't locate correctly, the rustling of the bushes from the gardens outside, the crying and screams coming from Ninomiya's room almost every night, made it a bit hard for Sho to find a peaceful sleep. He was even more irritated, when he noticed that the young writer sleeping in the room next door, sometimes seemed to leave his room in the middle of the night, to sneak around the house.

Sho was wondering, if the writer was just being restless and trying to make his mind sleepy by walking around, or if he was actually sleepwalking. So far, he hadn't tried to find out, thinking that he should respect Takashima's order to leave Ninomiya in peace during the night, not to cause even more chaos, and not irritate the other by sneaking into his nightmares.

One night though, when Sho came back a bit later in the evening after having spent some hours at _“Koyama's Coffee Shop”_ in the village, in order to send Kato something urgent, he happened to witness one of the allegedly night strolls of Ninomiya.

Everyone seemed to be to bed already, even if it was only about half past 10. Despite having taken a snack at _"Koyama's"_ , one of the famous self-made éclair by the owner, the young editor was still hungry when he returned to the house. The lights had been switched off and everything was quiet, only embraced by the still prominent shrieks of the cicadas from the late summer garden outside.

After the assistant placed his stuff in his room, he slid the door open again and tiptoed to the kitchen, paying attention not to wake up any of the other inhabitants of the house. He was happy to find a small serving of dinner in the fridge that Fujigaya seemed to have set aside for him and he intended to take it back with him to his room.

Just when he exited the kitchen, he suddenly heard a loud noise from somewhere in the house that he couldn't immediately locate correctly. Did it come from one of the rooms? Or from above? He waited for a while, and at least Takashima didn't seem to wake up yet. When he slowly continued his way, the noise appeared again. Now he was pretty sure that it was coming from above. The attic?

Sho turned around the corner, catching sight of Ninomiya's door sliding open slowly and the young writer exiting his room. Sho was about to call out to the other but the young writer had already turned and walked down the corridor heading the other direction, without noticing his assistant. Quickly, Sho brought his meal to his room and decided to risk a little spying on the author. It couldn't do any harm, could it? So the young man followed the other, tiptoeing over the wooden floor, hoping that the little shrieks wouldn't expose him immediately.

He made it, without getting spotted, to the stairs which would lead up to the attic, at the other side of the house. Ninomiya had just climbed the stairs and entered the room up there, one of the rooms Takashima had told Sho not to enter since it wouldn't be of his interest or concern to see what was hidden in there. The young editor hesitated for a while, not sure if he should follow Ninomiya up there but suddenly, he heard some banging noises coming from the room upstairs. He cringed from the surprise, frowned and waited for a moment.

Silence.

But then, another bang, and another, as if someone was throwing things across the room up there. Sho heard a shriek, most likely coming from the young writer and he started to panic. What the hell was going on up there? The noises became louder and more frequent and quickly, the young editor decided to go up there to check what was happening.

He climbed the stairs hurriedly. When he reached the wooden door, wanting to slide it open, something strange happened. It was like there was an invisible power that suddenly pushed the door back in its frame, making it impossible for the assistant to enter the attic. He wondered, and tried to open it again, thinking that the mechanism of the sliding door could had a fault but no matter how often and how hard he tried to pull the door open, it didn't work. Irritated, Sho started banging his hand against the frame.

“Ninomiya-kun, is everything OK? Hey, Ninomiya-kun, open the door!” the editor yelled, but he didn't get any reaction.

More stuff getting thrown around the room could be heard and to be honest, Sho was not sure if he should either fear for the writer's safety or his sanity, still not knowing what was going on in there, and if the author was on his own or had company. The editor heard another loud bang and it felt like something – someone? - got smashed against the wall right next to the door. Again, he nervously tried to push the door open and surprisingly, this time it worked and he almost lost balance in the action. The young man stumbled inside the room, the attic was only lit by a few scanty lamps hanging from the ceiling, one of them dangerously swaying, most likely because it had gotten hit by something. Looking around the room, Sho found himself in the middle of a huge chaos, books and other objects were spread all over the floor. Sho wondered if it had always been in such a condition. Then, he looked closer, and could distinguish the silhouettes of two little creatures at the other end of the room, hidden in the shadows.

The twins. They were standing there, their tiny hands connected between their bodies, as they were clinging to each other. Maybe, the chaos surrounding them was to be blamed on the kids who had seemed to have went berserk in here. They looked gloomy, not a trace of a smile could be spotted on their faces. Their looks were darted to the opposite side of the room and when Sho followed that direction, he spotted Ninomiya, hunkered down on the floor just a few meters away from him, rolled up to a small shaking ball, breathing heavily, his arms over his head in a protective gesture.

“Please stop it,” the writer whispered, barely audible for Sho's ears.

Quickly, he stormed towards the young writer, bending down. “Ninomiya-kun!” The editor then looked at the young girls again, confused. “What happened here?” he asked and when the girls suddenly darted their eyes at Sho, he froze for a moment, his body getting covered in goose bumps.

Of course, they didn't answer. So far they had never answered his questions or reacted much to his actions, so Sho wasn't surprised and when he repeated the question, demanding an answer from the twins, they just ran away, quickly passing the two men and down the stairs. Sho was about to jump up and follow them, but he suddenly felt Ninomiya's hand grabbing his sleeve to hold him back.

“Don't,” the young writer said, not daring to look at the other man. “Let them be...”

Sho focused on Ninomiya again, worried. “Ninomiya-kun...”

“What are you doing here, Sakurai-kun?” the other finally lifted his face, looking at the other man.

Sho settled down next to the writer, and then he just realized how awful the other looked. There were a few scratches on his arms, most likely caused by some books that the children must have thrown at their brother. He was shaking a little and the editor could even spot a small, bleeding wound on the writer's forehead. When he reached out to brush away the black hair to get a better view, Ninomiya cringed a little and turned his head, slightly pushing his assistant's hand away.

“I saw you coming up here and wanted to check if you're OK, sorry for sneaking around...,” the editor said, taking back his hand.

“You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't see this...,” the other man murmured.

“You got hurt again?” Sho asked carefully.

“It's nothing,” the write insisted, tousling his hair so that Sho couldn't see the wound any longer.

“You always say that but it's not true,” the editor said in a serious tone. “Let me help you.”

“This shouldn't concern you, just ignore it,” the young writer tried to brush off the topic and finally was getting ready to stand up again.

Sho offered him his arm and this time, Ninomiya took it, to get up properly. His knees still seemed to shake a little. The editor felt sorry for the young man. Surely, all this excitement wasn't good for his weak heart either. He worried. “What's going on between you and your sisters?”

“They are angry with me, obviously,” Ninomiya sighed.

“Why? Why do they hate you so much?”

The young writer looked at Sho, his eyes filled with a sudden sadness that made the other's heart cringe in sympathy. “I took something important from them,” Ninomiya said in a low voice. “They have all the rights to hate me...”

“What are you talking about?” the editor dared to ask after a few seconds of silence but it seemed clear that up to now, this was everything that he would be able to get out of the writer.

“It's enough, Sakurai-kun, really. I'm tired, I want to go back to sleep.”

“But -”

Ninomiya shook his head. “No, please, I don't want to talk about it. Just let me go back to sleep.”

Sho had no other choice but to accept his boss' order, and so he decided to keep quiet for now and guided him down the stairs from the attic and back to his room. He made sure that the other took some pills, just in case and quickly treated Ninomiya's wounds. When the writer finally was lying down on his futon, Sho exited the room to go back to his own. This night, the editor couldn't find sleep until the early morning hours, thinking about what had happened, worrying about the writer.

~*~

The next morning, it was the first time that Sho slept in late and that he didn't wake up Ninomiya for breakfast. Instead, Takashima, who Sho found in the kitchen helping Fujigaya to clean up the dishes, told him that the writer had gone out into the garden, wanting to think about his work and was expecting Sho in one of his studies in a few hours. Sho took a sip of his coffee and stuffed in a slice of bread that he could get from the left-overs from breakfast, nodding.

After he had taken his breakfast, he cleaned his own dishes, what the housekeeper and the cook found pretty laudable. Secretly, he had to admit that his good manners not only put him in a good position in the kitchen, but also in the presence of the two. In fact, Sho wanted to seize the chance and try to find out more about Ninomiya's sisters, about the relationship between the siblings, about everything that the other two members of the household would be willing to share with him, hopefully.

When Sho asked a few questions about the children's behaviour, the housekeeper was a bit hesitant before finally telling him a few details. Takashima told him that since they lost their parents, they were a bit strange and that Ninomiya didn't want to force them to do anything they didn't like and that was also what he had told the others to do. Sho complained about the impoliteness of the kids and that they hurt Ninomiya but Takashima didn't seem to know how she should react to that.

"Don't be so strict with them, they are still traumatized," she then just said.

“Being strict?” Sho asked in disbelief. "It won't help not having any control over them and just letting them do as they please, especially not if they disturb Ninomiya-sensei's work or even hurt him! I know it's not my position to talk about child education here in the house, but I have to consider the working environment of my writer."

"I understand your worries,” Takashima nodded slowly. “But you're right, you are not the one to talk about child education here. And this is a new rule – no talking about the parents' death in front of Kazunari-san or the girls."

“But why -,” Sho wanted to protest.

"There are no buts or whys, Sakurai-san. Those are the rules now,” the housekeeper said in a strict voice. “It's for Kazunari-san's sake."

The editor didn't answer and just looked at the woman, obviously not amused.

"Do you understand?" she asked, her voice filled with stress.

"I understand very well," Sho replied, even if he didn't really approve of it.

"So please, consider Kazunari-san's feelings."

"He's my first priority. Of course, I will," the editor said, sincerely.

~*~

Despite putting Ninomiya's feelings first, in the end, Sho couldn't completely forget about the whole situation. He felt unease about a bunch of things, about the fact that he wasn't allowed to talk about Ninomiya's parents' death, not about the children. The strange happenings in the house didn't make it easier and the editor knew that Ninomiya still hadn't completely opened up to him yet, which he found important for the development of their work relationship. So the assistant decided to try and get some more information from other sources, even if he knew that Takashima most likely wouldn't approve if she knew that he was sneaking around.

"Ne, Fujigaya-kun, why aren't you living in this house too?" Sho asked the cook one day when he ended up helping him to cut some vegetables in preparation for lunch. "Don't you like it here? The house is beautiful and it wouldn't take you so long to come to work, obviously."

The cook made a humming thinking noise, not stopping his own task. Finally, he murmured, "It's somehow spooky here, isn't it?"

"Spooky?" Sho wondered but honestly, he might have an idea what the cook was talking about.

"Yeah, the noises at night, everything...," Fujigaya continued.

"But isn't it just because the girls don't know how to behave?" the young editor asked. "Well, and Sensei's nightmares of course..."

"You could say so, yes but nevertheless... I don't feel like staying here at night, I can't sleep here. I guess _you_ won't understand, though..."

"Indeed, it's not such a big deal for me," the writer's assistant admitted. He had already gotten used to waking up once in a while at night, but he didn't mind. "But if you find it spooky here, why are you even working here?"

The cook turned around, putting some ingredients for lunch together in a bowl and looking at Sho, who had stopped cutting as he focused on the conversation with the young man. "To be honest, the job is well paying, _really_ well paying. And also because of Kazunari-san..."

"Are you friends with him?"

Fujigaya tilted his head, wondering. "Not particularly. You know his character is a little hard to approach and I'm not as patient with people like you are, Sakurai-san. But I can't bring myself not to like him. I somehow want to support him, you see? I feel sorry for him."

"Sorry? Because of his weak health and the nightmares?"

The cook nodded before returning to his chopping board behind him. "Yeah..."

Sho seized his chance and sat up straighter, lowering his voice a little, knowing that the topic he was about to start wasn't well-received in this house, usually. "Speaking about the nightmares, do you think they have to do with the loss of his parents?"

Fujigaya hesitated, visibly, even stopping his action for a moment before resuming. "...Maybe?"

"Do you know how they died?" Sho went a bit further, knowing that he was walking on thin ice.

The young cook turned around and focused the other man with a serious look, his voice lowered. "We don't talk about that in this house, Sakurai-san. You know that."

"Oh come on, it's unfair if I'm the only ignorant one here not knowing about the circumstances," the young editor finally blurt out, frowning. Seriously, he had enough of this secrecy here. Wasn't he a member of this household too? Why didn’t anybody trust him enough to tell him the truth?

"Can you lower your voice, please?" Fujigaya hissed at the editor. "Kazunari-san might overhear our conversation. We don't want to remind him of what happened."

"Why? He's dealing with it one or the other way, if you ask me," Sho said, his arms crossed. "Maybe talking about it will even _help_ him to overcome those terrible nightmares."

"We're no psychologists and I don't want to make things worse. We don't talk about this here, end of story."

Sho sighed, and more to himself than to Fujigaya, he murmured, "Maybe I should talk to him directly."

"Don't!" the other suddenly said, harshly. "Didn't Takashima-san prohibit it?!"

"What can she do if I talk to him?" the editor asked, challenging. "She wants me to be friends with him. Friends talk about such stuff once in a while."

The young cook looked at him, pleading. "Please, if you're really friends with Kazunari-san, don't hurt him..."

Sho sighed again. He was tired of discussing this right now and so he decided to give up for today.

To his surprise, even when he tried getting some information about the Ninomiya household from the village, he wasn't successful at all. The only thing that the villagers knew was that Ninomiya moved to this area a few years ago. He was barely seen in town, once a year maybe, when he came to visit the shrine a little outside of the village for New Year's, but that was it. He didn't go for errands or grocery shopping by himself, he never visited restaurants or _”Koyama's Coffee Shop_ or anything else.

Even Koyama, who was pretty well informed about almost everything that was going on in the village and the area surrounding it, spoke of Ninomiya like a blank sheet of paper (and he was proud of using that metaphor for a writer). People knew about his job, but they didn't disturb him, respecting the privacy he had chosen. They knew that Takashima and Fujigaya were working for him, that Takashima even lived in the house, but nothing more. The two of them didn't really talk about their jobs there. It was like everything that took place in this house was meant to be kept there. When Sho asked what Koyama knew about Ninomiya's parents, the other just shook his head. Nothing. Only that they had died. Did he knew anything about Ninomiya's sisters? No, he didn't even know that the writer had siblings. The assistant wasn't even surprised about that, considering the situation they seemed to live in. Shutting themselves out from society, Ninomiya and his siblings were like complete outsiders here.

~*~

He didn't really know _when_ exactly it happened that he had begun to fall in love with the writer. But one evening, when Sho couldn't sleep and decided to head outside to the balcony, he was certain. He was nicely surprised to find the young writer, dressed in his sleeping yukata, sitting on the balcony's floor and looking into the garden with hazy eyes. At that moment, Sho's heart literally _screamed_ at him, telling him that the feeling he had developed in his chest over the past few weeks was actually love.

Sho wasn't that surprised, nor was he irritated over the fact that he had fallen for that man who was one of his idols and someone who had not only woken his interest but also his protective instinct. The wish to be of help to the young writer as his editor and assistant had slowly but surely grown into the wish of being the young man's support in each and every part of his life. Sho couldn't imagine any longer living a single day without being close to that man, without being able to see him, smell him, and watch his every action. He wanted to hear his voice. More and more, he wanted to spend time with him, wanted to be his friend, companion, confident, and even his lover.

Of course, the young editor knew that he couldn't just tell the other about it. He feared Ninomiya's reaction, feared that the other would be disgusted and sent him away. He had just managed to get the writer's approval for staying as his assistant after the first month of testing the chemistry of their team work, and he didn't want to lose the trust that the young author was obviously offering him. Instead, he wanted to become someone who the other would trust even more.

The writer seemed to be in a gloomy mood that night, Sho assumed, and thinking about what he could do to cheer him up a little bit, he suddenly knew. In fact, he had prepared something in his room, just for moments like these and maybe, it was the time to use it now. Quickly, the young editor searched through a drawer in his closet were he had hidden the morale boosters. Then he rushed to the kitchen to get a bucket, filled with a bit water and hurried back to his room. He grabbed the items that he had prepared from his desk and exited his room through the balcony door again, slowly approaching the young writer. He tried to be silent, not wanting to pull the other out of his thoughts, but maybe the young writer wasn't as concentrated as he looked, since he almost immediately turned his face in Sho's direction. He nodded as a small greeting and did not seem to mind when his assistant sat down next to him.

"Ninomiya-kun, you can't sleep?" Sho then asked, flashing him a sweet smile.

"...Not really," the writer murmured and darted his look back into the darkness of the garden, listening to the rustling leaves.

"Are you thinking about work?" the editor asked, even if he was pretty sure that he was right.

"More or less...," the other nodded slightly.

"What about a bit distraction?” Sho asked cheerfully. “You worked quite hard today, and you deserve a break, don't you think? Look!” the young editor put the bucket with water on the ground in front of the wooden balcony and finally showed some packages of sparkles to the other. “What do you think about playing with these little fireworks? When I was a child I really loved these sparklers. Whenever I used them, it was like they were absorbing all my fears and sorrows, until they burnt out. Want to try one?"

The assistant had expected a bit more enthusiasm, but it was quite the opposite reaction that he earned from the young man next to him, who was shaking his head eagerly. "Eh? No... no, thank you."

"What, are you scared about these?” Sho chuckled, trying to make a joke. “They are really harmless, I promise!"

"I know what they are,” Ninomiya answered dryly. “But no, I really don't want to try them,” he said with a firm voice.

The other man wondered, and his enthusiasm drowned by the rejection from the other man. He sighed slightly. "Alright, I won't force you. But let me show you one, will you?"

The young editor quickly pulled out one of the sparkle sticks and searched his pockets for a lighter, which he brought to the front of his body. But suddenly, Ninomiya reached toward him, nervously pushing away Sho's hand, which was holding the lighter. "No, don't!"

The sparkle stick fell to the floor when Sho accidentally dropped it and he looked at his boss with questioning eyes.

"Ninomiya-kun... what's going on?” he asked, wondering about the other's behaviour. “Is something wrong?"

"Put it away, I mean it!" the other repeated, this time almost freaking out, as his eyes widened in panic.

"OK, OK, I get it! I'm sorry... what's the problem?" Sho wanted to understand, letting the lighter slide back into his pants' pocket.

"Just put it away, please.”

"Eh, you're shaking,” the editor noted. “Are you really scared?" he asked carefully.

Ninomiya didn't answer but in the meantime he stood up in a hurry, and went back to his room. "I'm going to bed. Good night, Sakurai-kun.”

"Good night...," the other replied, but the writer was already half through the door to his room, leaving behind a confused assistant.

~*~

Days and nights went by, the days filled with work, as another deadline for Ninomiya's writing was approaching quickly, the nights filled with screams and awakened minds. Each and every time Sho heard the writer scream in his sleep next door, his heart cringed and he had to pull himself together not to jump up and go to him, to pull him into his arms and assure him that he was safe, that no matter what was threatening him in his dreams, he was with him and he would protect him. Sho's love for the young man seemed to grow with each day and the more he loved him, the more he suffered with him. But still, the nightmares was one of the taboo topics in this household and so far, the editor had abided those rules, like the well-mannered man he was. He wondered seriously though, how long he might be able to stand them.

After another night filled with Ninomiya's nightmares and not being able to sleep in the room right next to him, being kept awake by the screams and Takashima's footsteps running up and down the corridor, as well as her soothing words as she tried to calm down the other man, Sho felt half dead when he entered the writer's room in the morning to wake the other for breakfast.

To his surprise – or not – Ninomiya was already – or still? - awake, most likely after the last nightmare attack from just an hour ago, he wasn't able to sleep any longer, Sho assumed. Instead, the writer was sitting on his futon, his back leaned against the wall, his legs stretched, the blanket covering his knees. His head lowered, his look, seemingly darted into nowhere, was hazy and his face looked exhausted with sad, dark circles around his eyes that showed the serious lack of sleep from the last few days.

Sho slid open the door and entered the room, slowly approaching the author who didn't seem to hear him, or at least didn't care enough to give any reaction.

"Good morning, Ninomiya-kun,” Sho said in a low voice, kneeling in front of the other man's futon.

Still, no reaction.

“Ninomiya-kun are you OK?” the young editor tried to catch the writer's attention again, unsuccessfully. “Hey, Ninomiya-kun!"

As Sho talked louder, the young writer finally showed a reaction. He blinked with his eyes quickly and as if he just got drawn out of trance, he slowly turned his face, looking at his assistant, confused. "Hm?"

"Are you OK?” the editor asked carefully, leaning a bit forward to examine the other further. Seeing Ninomiya that smashed, hurt his heart deeply. “Breakfast is ready, I'm sure you would need some."

"I'm not hungry," the other stated simply, his look slowly drifting back to nowhere.

"Did you take your pills?" Sho asked loudly, he knew the other didn't, as he spotted the prepared pillbox and the glass of water still full on the low table like always.

Ninomiya looked at him and after a few seconds, he murmured. "I don't care about them."

"But you _have_ to take them," the young editor stressed.

The writer sighed deeply. "Sakurai-kun, if I take my pills or not is my decision, you get it?"

"But -," Sho wanted to protest, just to get shot by a death glare by his boss.

The other still looked so damned tired and deadly annoyed now in addition, causing the editor to shut up immediately. He bit his lips, wondering what he could do in this situation. Takashima had told him that he should take care that Ninomiya was properly taking his pills and so far, there hasn't been a problem (if you didn't count those times at which the twins had played their stupid pranks at their brother). Then, after a moment of consideration, Sho reached out to take the abandoned pill box into his hand. His hand played a bit with the light weight of the box. Satisfied, Sho could see the writer watching his action from the corner of his eyes. At least he had his attention. Then, without further thinking, the editor opened the box to take out the different pills Ninomiya was supposed to take in the morning.

"What... are you doing, Sakurai-kun?" Ninomiya finally asked, eyeing his assistant suspiciously.

"I'm checking the pills," Sho answered, tilting his head and playing with the little pills, counting them by pointing at them with his fingers, and taking a close look at them.

"Why?" the writer asked, obviously irritated.

Sho ignored the other man's question and just asked, "Are you sure you don't need them?"

"Come on, put them back or throw them away, and then leave me alone...," Ninomiya murmured, slowly but surely a little unnerved by the other's strange behaviour.

"Maybe _I_ should take them," Sho considered, looking at the pills again. Slowly, they were taking over the warmth radiating from his hand, causing a slightly sticky feeling in his palm.

"What?” Ninomiya frowned. “Stop talking such crap. You don't know the side effects from those pills if you take them as a perfectly healthy person."

Sho looked at him, challenging. "I could find out."

He didn't expect the other to get so angry, but now, Ninomiya looked furious. "You won't, put them back now. Seriously, that's not funny."

But Sho didn't listen to the writer and reached out to get the glass of water. The young editor parted his lips, put in the pills lying in the palm of his hand and put on the water glass to take a sip.

"Sakurai-kun!" Ninomiya now bending forward, reached his hand to the other and looked at him with a mixture of anger and worry as he saw his assistant taking the pills in his place. "Are you completely crazy?! Spit them out, now!"

But Sho didn't spit them out. Instead, he leant forward himself, closing the distance between him and Ninomiya and just when the other opened his mouth for another scolding, Sho circled his hand around Ninomiya's waist, pulled him close and pressed his lips against the writer's, firmly.

The other froze in his movement, staring at his assistant and wasn't able to do anything against it, when Sho pressed the tip of his tongue against Ninomiya's lips to part them, eventually _feeding_ him the pills the other had refused just the moment ago. Not prepared for this to happen, Ninomiya almost automatically gulped them down but when he realized what had happened, he quickly drew back from his assistant, lifting his hand to slap the young man's face.

Sho let go of the other, letting him escape from his supposed embrace. Ninomiya's breath was hitching and he pressed his hand against his lips, looking at the young editor, his eyes wide opened, showing deep confusion.

The other man didn't say anything, he didn't even touch the reddened skin of his cheek. He just dropped his look to the floor though, knowing that he might have gone too far with the other. The author didn't say anything more but his assistant knew himself that he should better leave the room now. He turned around, without another word, without saying he was sorry – because for some reason, he wasn't – and entered his own room.

Taking a deep breath, Sho leaned against the wall and now he finally lifted his hand to touch his bruised skin. He couldn't prevent a small chuckle. For such a weak person, Ninomiya's slap had been pretty powerful, he thought. His heart was racing. He touched his lips, still feeling the ghost of Ninomiya's on his. They had felt cold and dry, but Sho didn't care. Of course, he hadn't _intended_ to do this, to kiss the other. It just... happened. Sho shook his head, slightly. Really, this writer was driving him crazy. He could just hope that this wouldn't have any bad consequences for him.

~*~

In fact, the writer seemed to avoid Sho for the rest of the day, sending him off doing random stuff when he entered the room, telling him that he needed to be undisturbed while writing, and such. He averted his eyes when the other talked to him and seemed a bit irritated. Sho felt horrible but nevertheless, he just couldn't bring himself to apologize to the writer and instead pretended as if nothing had happened, returning to his normal, professional but caring behaviour as best as he could.

After dinner, which Ninomiya had skipped – hopefully not because of Sho – the editor was sitting on the balcony of his room. The sun was standing low and the summer garden in front of his eyes was dipped into a warm orange, the late sun rays warming his skin. He sighed deeply. Maybe, he had messed up. Maybe, Ninomiya was now just searching for the right words to fire Sho, after what had happened in the morning. What was he thinking anyway? Why couldn't he keep a control over his feelings, why did he give in to the stupid urge to _kiss_ the other, using the man's medication as a bad excuse to do so? Looking at it from hindsight, this had been a really bad idea, perhaps, he should really apologize before it was too late and he had to explain Kato why he had screwed up the promising team work with the writer.

Sho almost jumped from the shock as suddenly, Ninomiya's balcony door slid open and the writer took one step out, still holding onto the wood, eyeing his assistant from the distance. The editor looked back at him, wondering, not daring to say anything at all. For a few minutes, the two of them seemed to just look into each other's eyes, Sho was sure that he must be blushing but also seriously wondering, what was going on in the author's head right now. Finally, the editor averted his eyes, embarrassed, dropping his look to his knees.

Then, the writer finally approached him, coming to a halt just a few steps away from his assistant, still not saying anything. Sho gulped, and mentally prepared for the worst already, but in the end, Ninomiya just settled down next to the other, pretty close to him, maybe even too close. The editor blushed again and then he finally parted his lips, ready to apologize, but the young writer cut his words with his voice.

“Sakurai-kun, tell me more about you,” Ninomiya said, not looking at the other but darting his eyes at the sunset.

“Eh?” was everything that Sho could pronounce, surprised by the sudden question.

“I realized that although you live here for more than a month already, I barely know about you,” the writer stated casually. “I thought, we could change that, maybe.”

Sho still gaped at the other, perplexed. Didn't the writer want to tell him that he should leave the house as soon as possible? That he shouldn't get close to him ever again? Seemingly not, or the young man wouldn't be sitting so close to Sho now, the editor concluded and when the other man still looked at him, his eyes filled with expectation, he finally cleared his throat. He was still irritated, even nervous at the thought that the young writer actually seemed to show interest in _him_ , for the very first time since they met. So far, they only had talked about work and books, but not about themselves, about other likes, about their families and friends, about their lives.

He didn't really know where to start and so he decided to start with something close to their usual topics, some anecdotes from his job, his former working places, the authors and other editors he had had to deal with in the past. Ninomiya nodded sometimes, acknowledging some familiar names, but he didn't interrupt his assistant, his eyes wandering from him to the garden and back in turns. In the beginning, Sho felt a bit strange about holding a monologue, but he soon found a rhythm. He was a good talker after all, especially if his dialogue partner was a good listener, and this time, Ninomiya really was.

From his work, Sho’s talks spread to his time at university and high school, to the time when he had found his passion for novels and had decided on wanting to work in this field in the future. He confessed to the writer that once he attempted to write a story himself, but failed miserably and quickly found out that his strong point wasn't the creation of stories, but the refining the works. He was convinced that he was one of those people who were able to get the best out of other writer's stories, the best out of other writers. He beamed with delight when Ninomiya confirmed exactly that, telling him that he was doing a great job on motivating him and giving tips on his writing which the author very much appreciated.

He was almost surprised when he actually earned an amused chuckle by the writer as he thanked him for his nice words, bowing again and again. The author sighed then, looking straight forward again, letting his feet dangling over the edge of the balcony, his toes brushing through the long soft, green grass. His sigh turned into a yawn as the evening sun was tickling his nose and he lifted one of his hands to hide it.

“Are you tired?” Sho asked, smiling. “I guess, you didn't sleep well last night, right?”

“Yeah, I'm pretty tired,” Ninomiya admitted. “Do you mind if I take a short nap?”

“Ah, no, of course not,” the editor answered understanding, even if he felt a bit disappointed that their conversation seemed to be over. However, the disappointment vanished completely when the young writer didn't stand up – as the editor had expected – but slowly leaned his head against Sho's shoulder, seeking the other's support.

“Later, you have to tell me more about your family,” the young writer murmured, his eyes closed already.

“Ah, don't you want to go lie down in your room?” the editor asked, still a bit confused.

“Hm... later. If you don't mind,” Ninomiya mumbled sleepily.

His now completely relaxed body weighted heavily against Sho's side. The assistant couldn't help but blush again, his heart almost bursting from the close body contact and the utterly cute behaviour of the young man by his side. He was completely sure now, that, no matter what exactly this behaviour meant for the author right now, Ninomiya wouldn't fire him that quickly. Thankfully.

They set there in silence for quite some time, the young author sleeping seemingly peacefully for about an hour maybe, his shoulder supported by Sho's embrace, as the young editor finally had found the courage to settle his arm around the young writer.

When the sun had completely settled and the night sky had turned dark, revealing the stars' tiny lights on the firmament, the wind started blowing. Since the late summer nights were pretty cool already, Sho finally decided to take Ninomiya inside and so he took the young man in his arms to carry him, as he didn't seem to wake up from Sho's slight shoulder shaking. He put him onto his futon, pulling the blanket over him and he had to really pull himself together not to place a small good night kiss onto the forehead of that adorable young man who had completely snatched away his heart.

~*~

\- - -

_The liquid was spreading on the asphalt, the colour drawing a much too beautiful pattern of red wild flowers on the dark, sad surface. As if it wanted to mock him. To show him that once again it had beaten him._

_The young man bent over, clasping the banister of the bridge and he couldn't hold back his throwing up. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Again. His eyes filled with tears, finding their way down his cheeks and his body started shaking. When would this nightmare finally end? When would this curse finally stop?_

_While people around started to scream and yell that someone should call an ambulance, the young man knew that it was too late already, that no doctor would be able to help his friend in this situation any longer. With shaking knees, he pulled himself up the cold banister and slowly started walking down the stairs, his feet weak, his heartbeat so powerful in comparison, almost killing him._

_His friend was just lying there, at the end of the stairs, his head the origin of the blood spreading on the ground, seemingly never ending. His eyes were still opened from the shock of losing balance and they were staring at him, lifelessly. Bringing his hands to his head, the young man started to scream his pain._

\- - -

Sho wasn't as naïve to believe that Ninomiya's suddenly affectionate behaviour meant that the other possibly liked him the same way as he did. However, he understood that the way, the writer was treating him since the _kissing accident_ – as Sho referred to it since that day - was his own way of showing his assistant, that he didn't mind it in a bad way and that he didn't want to stop their working relationship because of that. On the contrary, Sho had the feeling that the other slowly but surely started to open up to him more than before, bringing their friendship to a new level little by little.

Especially, when the young writer finally decided to show his newest manuscript to his assistant, which he had kept secret so far, Sho felt like the other had eventually started to trust him. Nevertheless, reading this quite disturbing story, worried the editor a little, wondering if Ninomiya actually drew his inspiration from his countless nightmares. If yes, he felt even worse for him, imagining how he would freak out if he had to deal with such horrible scenarios night after night.

The story was called _"The Jinx"_ , the young writer explained to his assistant, and it told the story of a young man who seemed haunted by horrible incidents since the day he was born. Those incidents didn't happen to himself but to people around him, causing them to get hurt, or even worse, to end up dead, making the young man suffer from the unlucky happenings.

Sho's arms were covered in goose bumps when he finished reading some of Ninomiya's scenes which had shown a really grotesque and he had to gulp down the lump forming in his throat in order to suppress the urge of wanting to run to the toilet and throw up. As much as he usually loved the author's detailed, pictographic, and intense writing style, this had been really extreme, as if he was watching it as a movie in the cinema, a movie where the staff didn't skimp on the overuse of theatre blood and the likes.

"This is definitely a new genre for you to challenge, right?" Sho asked the writer when he put together the stack of hand-written paper, placing it back on the low table in the study.

"To be honest, I just… had to get it out of my system somehow, I think," the writer murmured after a few seconds of silence. "I guess it's no good for publication, but somehow, I wanted to show it to you."

"I'm glad, you did," the editor said immediately. "It's very well written, as usual, it's… definitely fascinating, even if it's really scary… If you _do_ want to get it published, I'm sure we would find an audience for this kind of material."

Ninomiya tilted his head, he seemed insecure and unsettled for some reason. "I'm not sure if I want to see it published."

"If you don't want it to get connected with your other works, we can even use an alias for you," Sho suggested.

"No, that's not it. It's kind of personal, somehow, you know?" the young writer said a bit shyly.

His assistant looked at him, not saying anything for a short while. Maybe, this was the chance to finally introduce a topic he had yet to talk about to the other man. "Your nightmares?"

The young writer ruffled his hair, humming and hawing a little before he finally admitted. "They might have had some influence on some stuff here, yes."

Sho gulped. So he had been right. And despite the fact that Ninomiya didn't really want anyone to read this story, he had shown it to him. He had admitted that he had nightmares. The taboo topic was broken once and for all and the young editor felt sad, excited, and sorry for the young man in front of him at the same time. He had to hold himself back not to hug the writer. However, he was really thankful for the trust the other showed him. Slightly nervous, Sho cleared his throat. He didn't want to dig too deep into the topic yet, it would be better to let Ninomiya open up to him in the pace the young writer preferred. Then, after sorting his thoughts about the whole thing, he asked him a question that was burning his head.

"How will this story end?" it was almost a whisper.

"The main character will die," Ninomiya stated bluntly, looking at Sho straight forwardly. His eyes looked sad.

The assistant stared at the writer, surprised by the quick response. "...He will die?"

"Yes."

Sho gulped, dropping his look. "…How?"

"He will commit suicide."

The editor looked up into Ninomiya's eyes again. "Why?"

"To defeat the spell that's on him," the writer explained.

“Does he feel guilty for the things that happen?” Sho asked and the author nodded. “But, it's not his fault, those are accidents.”

“Accidents that happened because he got close to those people,” Ninomiya added, his tone sounding bitter. “If he dies, nobody will suffer any longer.”

There was a long pause in which Sho tried to take in what the writer just had said. Then he brushed his hand over his face, wondering how to respond to the statement. He had the feeling that he could say just too many wrong things now but he couldn't just leave it hanging in the air. "Do you really think this is the solution for the problems?"

"Do you have a better idea?" the writer asked with sad eyes and even if Sho's mind was overflowing with things he wanted to say now, he just couldn't find the right words to express his feelings.

~*~

Just a few nights later, Ninomiya again suffered from terrible nightmares, and this time, it seemed even worse. Sho woke up when suddenly the young man next door started screaming again and again, as it happened sometimes but this time he didn't seem to stop. The writer sounded that he was horribly panicky but that wasn't all. Suddenly, Sho heard the door of Ninomiya's room burst open and the author stumbling into the corridor. His screams echoed until another door burst open and the voice distanced. Sho sat up straight on his futon, wondering. Did the young writer just exit the house?

He heard the splash of water, frowned in irritation, and then he had enough. He couldn't just sit here and ignore what was happening, he had to go check on the other, no matter what Takashima will do or say. Just when he stepped out into the corridor, Takashima left her own room, switching on the lights. Indeed, Sho spotted the door to the inner garden open and quickly went through it into the garden. From the other side, the housekeeper had opened another door and stormed outside too.

“Kazunari-san, what are you doing?” the woman asked, almost yelling as she came running toward the young man. “Please, don't... don't do that, Kazunari-san!”

Takashima had already reached Ninomiya, who was more or less bathing in the garden's pond now, wetting his arms, his clothes, his face, like crazy, water splashing around everywhere. His movements were fast, almost panicky and still he was screaming, something like “It's hot”. Sho came running closer, stepping into the pond too to get to the others and finally stopping next to the housekeeper who had a troubled look on her face.

“Takashima-san, he's sleepwalking, isn't he?” the young editor asked, watching the woman desperately trying to get hold of the young writer.

“It seems so...,” the housekeeper said. “But usually it's nothing this extreme...”

Sho remembered an article that he had read recently about sleepwalking when he looked it up on the internet, when he already suspected something like that. “It's bad to yell at him and wake him up, let's better try to find out what he's dreaming about and convince him to get back inside,” he suggested and Takashima nodded.

“It seems like he's dreaming about fire,” she then said in a low voice, stating what Sho could already guess from Ninomiya's behaviour.

Sho reached out his hand, putting it onto Ninomiya's shoulder carefully and after a few seconds, the young man seemed to slow down his panicked movements. His assistant stepped a bit closer, bringing his face to the young writer's ears.

"Ninomiya-kun? Listen, everything is fine,” the young editor said in a calm voice, not too loud in order not to suddenly intrude the other man's dream. He repeated what he said and added, “There's no fire, alright?” while rubbing his shoulder before pulling him into a slight hug. “Everything's OK...”

Ninomiya's body seemed to relax a bit and he let his arms drop to his sides. He was still shaking a little, though, whispering that it was hot, his breath slightly hitching. However, he finally seemed to calm down, at least he had completely stopped screaming now. Sho pressed him closer and it was just then when he realized, how _hot_ Ninomiya really felt. The young editor lifted one of his hands, brushing it over the author’s cheeks and put it onto his forehead which he found burning.

“Takashima-san, he's got a really high fever,” Sho then said. “We should bring him to bed.”

Together, the two of them guided the young writer out of the pond, and each of them one arm around their necks, they slowly brought him back to the entrance of the house. The young man's sleeping yukata was completely drenched and he wetted the wooden floor completely, creating a huge mess in the corridor.

“We have to get him out of those wet clothes. Can you please go get something against his fever, Takashima-san? I'll take care of him here,” Sho said and leaning Ninomiya's weak body against himself, he was ready to pull off the other's yukata to free him from it, having it almost pushed from his shoulders already when the housekeeper suddenly interrupted him.

"No!"

She was right next to him, trying to push Sho's hands off from Ninomiya's yukata and looked at Sho almost panicking but the other had already pushed it down, freeing the young writer's upper body. He frowned when he spotted the beginning of a scar on his left shoulder, the skin deformed and red.

"Eh? What...," the young editor looked at the spot, and slowly turned his head to get a better look at the writer's back. “Gosh...,” he was shocked when he saw the whole, huge scar, covering almost Ninomiya's entire upper back. “What happened?”

"Please, let me take care of him and _you_ go get something for the fever," ignoring the editor's question, the housekeeper then said, quickly reaching out to Ninomiya and pulling up the fabric of his yukata again to block Sho who continued to stare at the writer's scar. "You should find everything we need in the kitchen."

"But... I can do this, I don't mind, really," the young man responded, still a bit shocked, but he meant it.

"Really, I'm sure he would feel uncomfortable if he knew you undressed him. I'm in charge of him for years, please let me do it," Takashima insisted

"Fine, if you think it makes a difference...," the young editor finally gave in, still not getting why the housekeeper was making a fuss about this right now. If they wanted to hide Ninomiya's scar from him – which they obviously did – it was too late now anyway, he had seen it, and he would never be able to forget it.

Nevertheless, more important thing now was to take care of the author's fever, so the editor jumped up and ran down the wooden corridor to fetch what he needed from the kitchen. When he came back to Ninomiya's room, the other was dressed in fresh clothes, and lying on his futon. Takashima had used a towel to dry the wet skin and hair. Sho knelt down next to the housekeeper and handed her some of the stuff he was carrying. Then he reached to place a hot-water bottle filled with ice under Ninomiya's head and a cold washcloth on his forehead, pushing away some strands of hair. The young man seemed to have calmed down from his dream, but the fever must still be making him suffer. His eyebrows were frowned, his breath hitching but the cool contact seemed to help immediately, and Sho sighed in relief.

"You can go back to bed now, Sakurai-kun,” Takashima then said in a low voice. “Thanks for your help."

"I'll stay here," Sho replied promptly.

"What?"

"I'll stay here. I'll watch over him," the young editor sounded serious.

The housekeeper smiled a bit sadly. "You don't need to, I can do this. I always do."

"But I can do it too,” Sho enforced his intentions. “I'm here now and I'm his friend and you're not the only one any longer who can take care of him. Please, allow me to take care of him too."

“Sakurai-kun...”

“We're not going to talk about the scar, are we?” Sho then asked, looking at her straightforwardly. “I know you guys have secrets and I should respect it but I'd highly appreciate it if you would let me into your small circle one day. After all, that's why you hired me, isn't it?”

Takashima didn't answer. Sho could imagine that maybe things were more complicated than he thought, but he also thought that he had earned the right of not being kept in the dark forever.

"He's important to you, isn't he?" the housekeeper eventually whispered, looking at the sick man lying in his bed.

Sho nodded. "He is."

"Not just as a writer?" the woman asked further.

"Of course not, you know that," the young man answered sincerely.

"I'm glad then. He really needs a companion."

"So let me be it," Sho looked at her, pleading.

She sighed but then she finally got up again. "Then I'm going to bed first. Good night," she said, before she left the room, leaving the two men behind.

Sho brushed his hand over his face and took a deep breath, allowing his head to process the happenings from this night. He then reached out to take the writer's hand into his. He wouldn't leave this man's side until morning and if it meant that he wouldn't be sleeping this night, he was fine with it.

The young editor ended up sleeping on the hard floor next to Ninomiya, his head bedded on his arm, his hand still linked with the writer's. The next morning, when Sho woke up again after just a few hours of sleep and he opened his eyes, Ninomiya was looking at him, tired, but not breaking the eye contact. They didn't say a word and just laid there for a felt eternity, looking at each other, Ninomiya just slightly pressing Sho's hand.

Takashima had called a doctor from the village who came for a home visit to examine Ninomiya about half an hour later. The doctor found him with only a summer flu, nothing too bad, thankfully, but it would most probably knock the author out for a few days. After cross-checking with Ninomiya's other medication, the doctor left them with some extra pills and the order to make him stay in bed until he feel better.

For the next few days, Sho helped the young man to take his medicine, eat some light stuff like rice porridge, make sure that he drank enough and even helped him to get to the toilet. When Ninomiya wasn't able to sleep, Sho would talk to him or read him some pages from the book Ninomiya was currently reading. Sho didn't leave the writer's side for longer than absolutely necessary and he even moved his own futon into Ninomiya's room so that he could sleep just right next to him. Even if the author seemed to be embarrassed at first, having his assistant helping him to such extent, he quickly learned that Sho didn't mind. On the contrary, he insisted on helping the other and finally, Ninomiya gave in and accepted the other's help, embarrassed but thankful.

Sho even insisted on helping Ninomiya to wash his hair and his back when the young author was taking a bath. Since he couldn't remember anything from the night when he sleepwalked into the garden's pond, Ninomiya panicked at first, not willing to allow the other to see him naked but when Sho confessed that he had already seen the writer's scar, it was needless to hide anything any longer.

Still, the editor didn't dare to ask for details, not wanting to push the other and Ninomiya didn't seem to be ready to tell him anything yet. The other accepted it. If the young man didn't feel comfortable talking about it, there was nothing he could do. Sho just hoped that it wasn't because the other didn't trust him. He wanted Ninomiya to trust him completely, after all. Not only as writer and editor where they were meant to share a close relationship of common understanding to improve their work. But also as friends – which Sho wanted to believe that they had become over the last few weeks – he wanted the other to trust him.

However, Sho couldn't completely ignore the situation. He was convinced that the scar on Ninomiya's back was a burn mark, something that someone possibly suffered from being in a fire. He didn't want to imagine what had happened to the young man, even if he was curious, of course. His curiosity even followed him into his dreams and soon, the young editor started to dream about horrible fire scenarios, often about being caught in there, or about Ninomiya, being caught in a burning house, screaming. His own nightmares mixed with the writer's screams created stressful and restless nights for the young editor and he painfully found himself understanding Ninomiya, who suffered from nightmares almost every night after all, even better than before.

Sho almost freaked out when one night – he was sleeping in his own room again since Ninomiya's summer flu was cured – he woke up sweating heavily and he found the twins standing in his room, staring at him with angry eyes, when he switched on the light next to his futon.

“Girls, seriously, this isn't funny,” he growled with a sleepy voice, unnerved. He had to pull himself together not to throw a pillow at them. “Go play elsewhere, I don't want you to enter my room at night!”

They just continued staring at the young man for a few more seconds, until they turned around and left the room, leaving behind a confused Sho who just dropped back onto his futon after taking a deep breath. This was getting exhausting.

~*~

It was one of those days where the young writer was drowning in depressive thoughts more than actually working on his stories and so, Sho, not only as his editor but also as his friend, decided to take him out for a while. A change of scenery would surely lighten up the young man's mood, the assistant thought and so he had looked up on the internet for something nice to do. He had found a small summer festival in a town not too far from the village, maybe 40 minutes by car and what could be more entertaining in late summer than a festival?

The editor knew that Ninomiya wasn't exactly the type to visit such events, he once had told him that he got nervous quickly among strangers, which wasn't that surprising for Sho, and that he usually only felt safe at home. However, the assistant had somehow managed to convince the writer to try it. He told him to get dressed in a nice yukata, which the other had more than enough, that much Sho knew, and promised to take along all possibly necessary medications so that Ninomiya didn't need to worry about anything.

Sho was about to knock on the door frame to Ninomiya's room when the door slid open and the young writer exited his room. At that moment, he stole the editor's breath. The young man was wearing a dark blue yukata with a simple but beautiful light blue and white pattern, adorned by a yellow-green striped obi and Sho was surprised about the – for the writer atypical – colourful choice. He had expected something more understated, a grey or just one coloured blue piece maybe, he didn't know that the other would dress up that nicely. Not that he was complaining, his fast beating heart would call him a liar if he did, since the outfit just fit the young author superbly and Sho really liked the look. Especially when he saw that Ninomiya had also tried to control his usually messy hair a bit, having tied the a bit too long hair with a small hairband by his neck. Sho had to bite his lips to not comment on the spot how adorably cute the other looked, not wanting to risk embarrassing Ninomiya and changing his mind about coming along with him.

The assistant himself was dressed in a crimson red, one-colored yukata, his obi a grey-black striped one that highlighted his appearance. He didn't look as impressive as Ninomiya but based on the young writer's appreciative look, he wasn’t too bad, Sho thought, blushing a little.

Sho cleared his throat before he flashed the other a wide happy smile. "So, shall we go?"

They took his car and as calculated just about 40 minutes later they arrived at the scene of the summer festival. Sho had toyed with the thought of inviting the others from the household to join them too, but in the end he decided on going only with Ninomiya. He had to admit that he was glad that he decided that way. Maybe he was a little selfish but he really enjoyed spending time with the other, it gave him calmness and excitement at the same time and having the chance to visit this festival with him alone almost felt like it was a date with the other.

The festival was taking place by the riverside, and it was really pretty small, which wasn't bad because it wasn't too crowded either. Some booths with a nice variety of food lined up, mostly sweet things like cotton candy, candy apples, and chocolate bananas or shaved ice. Ninomiya wanted to try some of the ice with "tropical"-syrup, just out of curiosity and Sho gladly bought him one, happy to earn one of the rare smiles from the other man. He couldn't suppress a sincerely amused laughter though as he saw his friend finding out with a disgusted face, how horribly sweet the shaved ice with syrup was and ended up finishing Ninomiya's portion instead. They also witnessed happy laughing children attempting to scoop goldfishes with thin paper and playing with yo-yos.

It looked like a lot of fun and Sho tried to scoop some goldfishes too, though he had to accept that he was too clumsy to fulfil the task properly. Instead, Ninomiya surprised him with some quite talented moves and so the young writer ended up giving a few plastic bags filled with water and goldfishes that he won to some children whose joyful laughter tickled another sweet smile out of Ninomiya.

They walked from booth to booth, next to each other, enjoying the traditional music in the background and the happy faces crossing them. Everyone was dressed up nicely in colourful yukata and the smell of the different specialities hanging in the air made everyone feel comfortable. Sho had to pull himself together not to grab Ninomiya's hand, which he was dying to do, but he didn't want to make the other feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. Most likely, the writer wouldn't allow it anyway and so, the assistant held back his desire, trying to focus on something else.

When dusk was falling and the atmosphere got quite cosy with the red paper lantern's warm light filling the place, people slowly but surely started to gather at the top of a small hill close to the riverside.

"Oh, it's about to start!" Sho exclaimed excitedly.

"What do you mean?" Ninomiya asked, wondering.

"The firework," his assistant explained, pointing at the other side of the river. "They are setting it up already, look!"

"Ah, there!"

Sho looked at the young author, a bit shyly. "Do you... want to drive home or can we stay and watch it together?"

"Huh?" Ninomiya arched his eyebrows on him. "Sure, since we're already here, we can watch it."

"Really? Are you sure?" the other asked, to confirm.

"Yeah, why not?"

"I thought you were scared of... fireworks?" Sho said, smiling a bit weirdly.

"Ah," the young writer finally caught on his assistant's thinking, looking a bit embarrassed. "Because I freaked out that time? I'm sorry about that... but from here, we're far away from it. It's OK. It's different, right? So let's enjoy it together."

Sho flashed him a happy smile and together, the two men climbed up the small hill, passing lots of people who had already settled down, looking forward to the firework. Ninomiya almost stumbled over something and threatened to lose his balance, Sho could barely catch him. He chuckled and helped the young writer to stand straight, maybe pressing his arm a little too close around his waist. Looking directly into the shining eyes of the young man, Sho blushed slightly, then he let go of him and cleared his throat and soon they both were sitting down onto the grass, next to each other.

They didn't say anything for a while, looking forward to the firework which was still in preparation, the atmosphere filled with the happy anticipation of the viewers. Families, couples, groups of friends, all of them were chatting cheerfully, enjoying cotton candy and other sweets and snacks. Dusk was falling, the children's laughter and the cicada's noises were embracing the place. They were sitting on the highest place, being the only ones there. Sho felt good right next to Ninomiya and despite being close to so many people, he somehow felt like he was sharing a special world with the other man only.

He smiled, watching the other straightening the fabric of his yukata and brushing a loose strand of hair behind his ear. He looked so adorable... The young man seemed excited, as if he was a little nervous and the other wondered, if it was because of the upcoming firework. Only a few minutes to go, if everything went according to plan. The young editor looked at the other by his side, thinking about what he could do to calm down the other but the young writer suddenly addressed him.

"Sakurai-kun?" he asked, not shifting his gaze from what he was examining at the moment.

Sho gulped. "Yes?"

"Why did you... kiss me back then?" the writer asked in a low voice, finally turning his head a little, darting a shy look at his assistant.

"Ah, you mean that," Sho blushed, averting his eyes, a bit ashamed, and scratched his head. "I was… giving you your pills, wasn't I?"

"Was it just that?"

It wasn't but was that what the other wanted to hear? Sho decided on playing safe for the moment. "Well, I... really wanted you to take your pills."

"You didn't want to... kiss me?"

Sho didn't answer.

"I'm not experienced with things like these, you see?" Ninomiya then continued, looking a little lost. "I was a bit shocked and I was wondering, what it meant... I was wondering if it means you... _like_ me."

Suddenly Sho knew there wasn't any reason for him to hide his feelings. If Ninomiya was talking so openly, he should do the same. "I _do_ like you," he admitted in a serious tone.

"Why?" the other whispered, his eyes taking a desperate shine.

"You're special," the young editor said, earnestly.

"You mean, I'm _strange_."

Sho chuckled. "Maybe, a little bit, but that's part of your charm and not exactly what I meant. You're a very special person and you're very special to me, that's why I like you."

"I'm not worthy of being liked," the writer dropped his look, a depressed atmosphere taking over him.

"That's not true!" Sho quickly opposed, firmly. "I'll show you. I'll make you happy."

"I don't deserve happiness."

"That's not true either," Sho smiled.

"Liking me is dangerous," the other said, his look distant and gloomy.

Moving a little bit closer, Sho bent forward to get a better catch of Ninomiya's face. "What do you mean?"

"You could get hurt," the other said after a few seconds, looking into Sho's eyes.

"I can't imagine," the young man shook his head. "You won't hurt me, right?"

" _I_ won't but..."

"Tell me, Ninomiya-kun. Do you like me too?"

"...," the writer didn't reply but continued looking at the other man, straightforwardly.

"Just be honest," Sho gave him a small but sincere smile. "Whatever you say, it's OK for me."

The other hesitated. "Sakurai-kun, this won't work out."

"That's not the answer to my question. Please, Ninomiya-kun, just say it."

After another short pause, the writer finally answered. "Yes, I think, I like you too."

This was enough for Sho to reach out and give in his desire to touch Ninomiya's hand, to finally intertwine their fingers. The author didn't complain and just let the other do as he pleased. The warmth of their hands mixing with each other felt really good and Sho's heart was pounding heavily against his chest as he saw that the other was finally allowing him to get close to him. How long had he been waiting for this? How much had he wished for this to happen? He inhaled and hesitated only a second before he gathered all his courage.

"Will you slap me again if I kiss you now?" he finally asked, whispering.

Ninomiya pursed his lips. "Try it."

Sho smiled and slowly, he closed the distance between him and the young man's face who looked a little nervous, which the other found just adorable. He came to halt just a bit in front of the young writer's face who gulped visibly.

"Close your eyes and relax," Sho whispered, his free hand slightly stroking over Ninomiya's cheek and the other did what he was told.

Sho did the same and leaned forward to erase the last gap between them, bringing their lips together in a light and tender kiss. Their lips just touched for a few seconds, warm and sweet against each other but it felt like an eternity for Sho. When he opened his eyes again, Ninomiya had backed off and cringed over the surprisingly loud sound coming from above and the editor could see the reflection of the first firework bursting in the sky in the young writer's hazy, beautiful eyes. Sho smiled over the other's cuteness, the mixture of excitement and nervousness when facing the fire sparkles. The assistant finally turned his head too to witness the colourful spectacle in the night sky but he didn't let go of the writer's hand until the firework finished and grasped it firmly, the other answering the pressure.

After the firework, they went to get another snack from one of the festival booths, Sho deciding on takoyaki while Ninomiya went with yakisoba. They took their time to walk back through the half-darkness to the parking lot before getting into the car to drive home, eventually. They didn't talk much but when Sho turned on the radio and started to talk to Ninomiya a bit about his favourite music, they seemed able to develop a natural conversation again.

They were just driving for a twenty minutes, with Sho humming along to a song, when suddenly something entered the light beam of his car's lights. Something that definitely shouldn't be out there on the streets, not at this time, and not in this area. But this wasn't the time to frown and wonder about those little creatures suddenly showing up in his vision, so the young man quickly stomped on the brake and turned the steering wheel, to avoid crashing into them. He caused the car to turn left and leave the road, driving into the bushes by the side of the street. Ninomiya screamed, surprised, grabbing something to stabilize his shaking body and Sho tried to get back the control over his car. It rolled a few more meters until it got stopped by the woods.

"Ninomiya-kun!" he took a deep breath and whirled around to the young writer, checking if the other was OK.

The writer was clenching his chest and breathing heavily but he just waved at the other, that everything seemed OK. He was already calming down and even if he was obviously a bit shocked, he seemed to be unharmed.

"Sakurai-kun, what was that?" the young man asked when the other man sighed in relief.

Sho dropped his head over his crossed arms on the steering wheel and allowed himself to catch some breath. Then, he burst open the door of his car, furiously fighting with some branches that attacked him once he exited the vehicle. Screaming angrily, he stormed onto the street, as if he was searching for something.

"Where are you, little brats?" he yelled. "Are you insane?!"

Ninomiya turned his head, wondering about Sho's sudden action, and left the car hastily too. His legs were a bit shaking from the shock as he went up to the other man who was running up and down the street.

"Sakurai-kun, what... what are you doing?" the writer asked a bit irritated.

"What I'm doing? I'm searching those stupid children who think it's funny to play on the dark street in the middle of the night!"

"What children?" Ninomiya asked, frowning.

"Didn't you see them?" Sho ruffled his own hair.

"I wasn't particularly paying attention to the street."

"Those that jumped in front of the car! I'm really a patient man and I do like children but I fear with _them_ I'm slowly but surely losing my patience! Enough is enough!"

"Who are you talking about?" Ninomiya asked again.

He was confused, but it was just then, when he suddenly realized that he didn't need to ask, he should have known. He turned around, to face his little sisters, standing close to Sho's car, holding hands and darting an unpleasant look at their brother and his assistant. Ninomiya's heart constricted painfully, as he realized what was actually going on.

~*~

They drove home in silence, Sho in a pretty bad mood, Ninomiya feeling desperate and in the back seat the two girls, not saying a single word, like always. Sho tried to talk to them, asking them how they even got there in the middle of the night, and to scold them. However, in the end the young writer sitting right next to him told him unambiguously that it wasn't Sho's position to tell off his sisters and that he should just stop. Sho did what he was told, he was Ninomiya's assistant after all and Ninomiya was the one who should take care of disciplining his siblings but when the other didn't seem to plan on doing so, the young editor just gave up and sulked for the rest of the ride. The young girls still didn't talk, not to each other, not to their brother, for the whole remaining twenty minutes they just seemed to stare at Sho with knitted eyebrows, as if they were angry with him and it almost freaked him out.

Once they arrived at the Ninomiya's house, Sho opened the door to the back seats and the girls just jumped out of the car and headed off into the garden, hiding in the darkness of the trees.

"Seriously, you have to teach them some manners," Sho growled angrily as he approached the entrance of the house.

"Sakurai-kun, please, don't interfere into this," Ninomiya repeated his words from before, in a low voice.

He seemed gloomy, maybe even depressed, most likely he wasn't pleased about the situation either but Sho was still sulking over the fact that his boss did not even seem willing to do something against it and he was just about to lose his nerves.

"Don't you see that you don't have them under control? I don't mind if you want them to stay at home, getting home tutored, or if you have a lenient hand with them because they lost their parents so early," he started, seeing Ninomiya cringe as he mentioned his parents. "And yes, I'm talking about your parents' death now because no matter how much everybody tries to mute me regarding this topic it _is_ a topic here and people should talk about it! And I _do_ mind if your sisters do dangerous things, if they disturb your already bad sleep or if they bully you while you're working on a story or when they just show up in the middle of a street almost causing us to meet an accident! I could have _killed_ them, damn it! Or they could have killed _us_!"

"Sakurai-kun, please…"

"No, Ninomiya-kun, I can't just swallow this and pretend there's nothing, like always," Sho enforced his standpoint. "This is dangerous, _they_ are dangerous!"

"I _told_ you that it's dangerous to like me," the young writer then blurt out, his look darted to the ground. His body was shaking slightly.

"What, because of your – pardon me - insane little sisters?" Sho chuckled unbelievingly. "They shouldn't be like that; they shouldn't be a problem if they were just a little more disciplined -"

"It's not their fault!" the young writer chimed in and when the other looked at him, sighing, he repeated. "It's not their fault..."

Sho took a deep breath and finally came a step closer to the young man, reaching out his hand to touch his arm. "Stop protecting them, Ninomiya-kun... All of you have to face the truth sooner or later, you can't just stay trapped in the past, you have to move on, you and your sisters," the assistant said, his voice calmer and more friendly again. He was truly worried about the other, that was for sure. "You might think that with not talking about what happened you will feel less hurt but in fact, you're just muting your feelings. Not talking about it doesn't make it undone!"

Ninomiya's look was still glued to the ground. He seemed to be in thoughts but then, he suddenly said, "I should have died together with them."

The young editor dropped his hand and looked at the young writer, shocked, trying to process what the other had just said. "What?"

"I should have died together with them...," the young man murmured apathetically. He lifted his arms, grabbing his own shoulders, the fabric of his yukata crumpling between his fingers.

"Ninomiya-kun, what..."

"I've always caused problem to my family because of my weak health, to my parents, to my sisters… it's my fault that they died, I killed them! No wonder my sisters despise me, I can't blame them, so please, just let them do as they please, that's all that I can offer them."

Sho frowned, seriously worried. "What are you talking about, you didn't _kill_ your parents, did you?"

Ninomiya shook his head firmly, squinting his eyes. "No, Sakurai-kun you don't understand… just don't ask. We are not going to talk about this. It’s better if I didn’t tell you anything... Forget what I told you, everything!"

"Ninomiya-kun...," the other man tried getting through to him again.

"You wouldn't understand anyway," the author snapped.

"So let's talk about it!" Sho said, decided.

"No," Ninomiya murmured, brushing his hand over his forehead. "No, just... just go, OK?"

"What?"

"Just go!" the writer yelled at his assistant.

"Forget it, I won't just go away now," Sho protested. "We like each other, don't we? So I'm here to support you, no matter what-"

"I-I lied to you, OK?" the other interrupted him.

The other man looked at him, puzzled. "You lied to me?"

"I don't like you. Not the same way you like me and it makes me uncomfortable to be close to you, knowing that you like me _that_ way."

Sho couldn't believe the writer's words but he also couldn't prevent his heart from feeling stabbed. "But... you said... you even let me kiss you," he said in a low voice.

"Yes, I remember what I said but I wasn't myself at that time, you know?" the writer quickly glared at him, but averted his eyes almost immediately again. "I mean, the atmosphere... your sweet, alluring words... I just felt lonely, OK? I thought maybe this is a chance to be less lonely but in the end I just have to accept that it doesn't work and it will never work," the young writer sounded desperate and Sho would have liked to pull him into a tight embrace but Ninomiya's next words kept him from doing so. "I want you to leave," he said, firmly.

Sho just stared at the author with a hurting heart and didn't know how to react. He felt that the other had drawn back from him, that he was distancing himself again, building a wall to protect himself from any other human around him. "Are you serious?"

"I am."

"You're firing me?"

Ninomiya nodded. Sho gulped down the heavy lump forming in his throat, unable to say anything to protest at the moment. It just hurt too much right now. He lowered his look. It was obvious that it wouldn't help to try talking to the young writer at the moment, he would just crash against his protective wall and ended up hurting himself even more.

"I'll spend the night in the guest house in the village then," Sho murmured his surrender, looking at the other, who didn't dare look him in the eyes.

~*~

Sho didn’t bring his stuff along but just turned around and got back into his car after the fight with Ninomiya. He drove to the village, turning up the volume of the speakers when an aggressive rock tune sounded from the radio, letting the song speak his anger. He got a small room in one of the village's guesthouses and tried to calm down his angry attitude by watching some random TV program. A few hours later, he found himself pondering in his bed, unable to get some sleep, worrying about Ninomiya and feeling strange for spending a night so far away from him for the first time in weeks.

The young editor refused to believe that Ninomiya had lied to him. He wasn't the type to lie, he was secretive but when he talked, he always says the truth straightforwardly. He was convinced, that the writer liked him too, all the hints the past few weeks and then the confession before the firework, Sho just couldn't believe that it was a lie. The writer must be troubled. He looked desperate. He had some issues, due to his parents' death, due to his nightmares, due to his sisters' strange behaviour. Sho just had to find out the truth and to convince the other that no matter what he would stay with him and go through this together with him if he let him. The young man decided that it would be the best to give the writer a little time too to think about them, to sort his feelings and to approach him again in maybe one or two days.

After just a few hours of sleep that finally overwhelmed him while his thoughts were still on Ninomiya, Sho got up early the next morning, waken up by his cell phone's alarm clock. He was pulled out of his dream, a nightmare, something about Ninomiya, about the time when he had been sick, about fire... Sho shook his head, trying to get rid of the horrible images.

He got up quickly and headed to _“Koyama's Coffee Shop”_ to get a freshly brewed coffee and some breakfast before heading back to the Ninomiya house. He wanted to think about what exactly he would say to the young writer to convince him not to end their relationship for real and he was sure his grey cells would work better with a full stomach.

"He yelled at me and chased me away...," Sho eventually poured his heart out in front of Koyama as he sat at the bar of the coffee shop.

"And you just left?" the shop owner asked while cleaning some mugs.

"I left but I don't intend to accept it. I left my stuff there and will return to the house and I will have a proper talk with him again,” the editor explained his plan, taking another bite of his toast with egg and tomato. “I think we have become quite close to each other, I cannot accept that he suddenly pushes me away like that."

Koyama smiled. “I like your persistence, Sakurai-san. I'm sure with this; you two will be able to make up.”

Sho nodded, smiling. It was then, when another customer entered the coffee shop, to order some take-aways.

“Breakfast for me and Taisuke, Kei-chan,” a familiar voice said and Sho turned to face the customer.

It was Kitayama, another regular of this shop who he had gotten to know a few weeks ago, and who had turned out to be Fujigaya's roommate. They had talked quite a bit already, and alongside with Koyama and a few other people, the man slowly but surely became one of the known faces of this village for Sho.

“Good morning,” the young editor greeted the guy and the other waved at him friendlily before he joined him at the bar, ordering a coffee too.

“It's seldom to see you here in the morning, Sakurai-san,” Kitayama stated and Sho took it as an invitation to tell him the short version of his story too.

He was surprised when Kitayama's face turned worried with the progress of the story and it took the young editor quite a bit to make the other man spit out what was troubling him.

"You know,” Kitayama finally started. “I'm not supposed to tell you this but Taisuke told me how much you care for Ninomiya-sensei and even if Takashima-san and Taisuke think otherwise, I think you deserve to know the truth."

The young editor, about to take another sip of his coffee, stared at the young man. "What are you talking about?"

"They won't tell you what happened to Ninomiya's parents, right?" Kitayama asked to confirm and Sho put down his coffee mug, getting a little nervous.

"Right. I just know that they died but I don't know anything else about it," he admitted, still not ready to believe that he really might find out the truth – unexpectedingly from the cook's roommate, a guy who was more an acquaintance than a friend.

"I just heard this from Taisuke but he made me promise to never tell anybody... however, I think you deserve to know it. Don't tell him though that I told you the story."

Sho shook his head. "I won't tell him, I promise."

Now, Koyama who had been listening to the men's conversation with sharp ears couldn't hide his curiosity any longer either, stood close to them with big eyes. Kitayama cleared his throat before getting a bit closer to Sho so that he wouldn't have to talk too loud.

"The family didn't live here in this area, so it's not a story widely spread around here," the young man started.

Well, that much Sho had gotten by himself already. "So, what exactly happened?" he pushed the other.

"I don't know the _exact_ circumstances but it seems that one night there was a fire in their house. It was said that his parents saved Ninomiya-sensei but his parents died after saving him," Kitayama explained.

A fire. So it had been a fire. Honestly, it wasn't that much of a surprise for Sho. In fact, it made overwhelmingly sense. Sure, why didn't he think about it already? The burn scar on Ninomiya's back, his fear of the lighter (and not the fireworks) that Sho had held in his hands, the nightmares about fire... Sho cursed. Now that he knew the answer, the hints of the puzzle were so clear in front of him, he must be an idiot.

After processing the new information, Sho looked at Kitayama. "What about his sisters, weren't they present at the time of the fire?"

The other frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Ninomiya's sisters. They survived too!" the young editor exclaimed.

"Sakurai-san, I don't know what you're talking about."

“I already told him I don't know anything about Ninomiya-sensei's sisters, but he keeps talking about them,” Koyama finally chimed in his piece of information, making Kitayama frown again.

"But his two younger sisters _live_ with him, the little twin girls. Didn't Fujigaya say anything about them?" Sho asked confused. “He uses to make them breakfast pretty early, he said.”

The other man shook his head. "No, no wait, you must be mixing up something. He once told me that Ninomiya-sensei, Takashima-san, you and him are the only people there..."

The young editor shook his head. "That's impossible, I _saw_ them!"

"According to my information, there are no little girls living in that house, I'm pretty sure about that."

Sho looked at the other man, devastated. It must be a mistake, he thought. Koyama didn't know about them either, nobody seemed to know about them but wasn't it just because the Ninomiya household was kind of shut away from the rest of the society living in and around the village?

Surprisingly, another person joined their talk and it was just then when the young editor realized that the whole coffee shop seemed to be listening to their conversation, interested, confused. It was an elderly woman to his right who just had bought a package of coffee beans from Koyama, who patted his shoulder and made him turn toward her. She looked about Takashima's age and it seemed like she was a good friend of the woman.

"Are you talking about the two little girls in the picture in the living room?” the woman asked him and Sho remembered that Takashima once had asked him the same thing. He nodded, continuing to listen to the woman's talk. “I was once visiting my dear friend there and she showed me around."

"Yes, those girls, exactly."

"This is really strange, back then, I'm sure, Reiko-san told me that they were..."

The final missing piece finally clicked into place in Sho's mind as he stared at the woman, dumbfounded, a cold shiver ran down his spine. After a few seconds, he finally got hold of himself again. He thanked Takashima's friend as well as Kitayama for telling him the truth behind the mystery behind Ninomiya's parents' death and then jumped up hurriedly from his seat, placing the money for his breakfast and coffee on the bar.

"Sakurai-san? Where are you going?" Koyama asked, a bit confused over the hurried departure.

"I have to go back to Ninomiya-sensei,” Sho quickly explained. He couldn't leave the other alone now that he knew everything. He had to be with him.

On the way to his car, Sho spotted Takashima walking on the other side of the street and quickly caught up to her. He had to confirm something with her. The woman looked at him, surprised, obviously she didn't expect to meet her here.

“Takashima-san? Do you have a moment? Are you here for grocery shopping?” the young man asked.

“Sakurai-kun, good morning. No, in fact, Kazunari-san sent me away for the day, he said I should take a day off once in a while and meet up with some friends in the village. I usually don't take days off since I don't want to leave him alone but I could use some holiday so I gladly accepted this time,” she started to explain before she gave Sho another confused look. “But what are _you_ doing here? Kazunari-san said, I shouldn't worry, you would be with him after all.”

“What?! He really said that?”

“Sakurai-kun, is something wrong?” Takashima looking at him, now worried.

“What about Fujigaya-san, is he at the house right now?” the young man asked immediately.

“No, Kazunari-san told me in the morning to call him and let him know that he could take some holiday too, why?”

Sure, that's why Kitayama had come to Koyama's shop to buy breakfast for him and Fujigaya, Sho remembered. “Does this mean Kazunari-san is all alone at home right now?”

“Apparently, yes...”

“Except from the girls... right?” he asked further and the shocked look on Takashima's face said more than her words could have been able to tell. He sighed desperately.

"Did something happen?" the woman asked finally.

Sho could just think about Ninomiya, about all the stuff that he said. That he had taken something important from the girls, that they had the right to hate him. That he should have died together with his parents. That he wasn't worth being liked. The conversation about the main character of Ninomiya's _”The Jinx”_.

“Oh Gosh... so he sent all of us away and is alone there now with.... What if he is up to something stupid?!” Sho almost fell into panic. Maybe his dream last night wasn't just a simple dream.

“Sakurai-kun,” Takashima grabbed his arms, slightly panicking too now.

“I really have a bad feeling, Takashima-san,” Sho said. “We should go back there immediately. And maybe... do you know if there is a priest who is available now?"

"A priest? I guess he's at the temple, like always…”

“Let's go pick him up, maybe we'll need his help,” the editor said and he and Takashima ran to his car. The woman then guided him as they drove as fast as they could to the temple just outside of the village.

~*~

Ninomiya hadn't slept the whole night and it showed on his face, the huge dark circles around his eyes outing him as an insomniac. The morning sun tickled his nose and he blinked, avoiding the bright sunrays that were hurting his eyes. A light wind made the chime hanging in front of his room sound and he took it as a sign to stand up and get the things he would need for the next step. It was time.

The young author had been sitting on the balcony of his room, staring into the garden's darkness, watching the almost painfully bright stars in the night sky and hearing the cicadas as well as the pondering of his own heart against his ribcage.

He had thought about a lot of things, about his childhood, his parents, his sisters. He thought about that incident, the day when his parents died and he lived and he thought about what happened afterwards. He remembered all the suffering, the denial, the guilt, all his painful feelings and he remembered how just recently one man had made him _forget_ those painful feelings a little bit, even if it was just for a while. It felt good not to experience this pain all the time, it felt good to experience new feelings; it felt good to be close to him.

Ninomiya smiled warmly when he remembered the first meeting with his assistant, how polite and excited he was and how hard he worked for him from that day onwards. He remembered how much the editor took care of him, not only about work, which he was great at, but also about himself as a person, as a friend. He remembered the touch of their hands, the scene on the balcony when he rested against him, the kiss at the festival the previous evening. He was surprised that he allowed the other man to enter his life this way, but somehow, he wasn't able to resist his charm, the magic spell he seemed to have on him. Maybe, this was part of his punishment too, tasting heaven before he was finally sent to hell.

At first, Ninomiya was confused and not sure if things would work out but he quickly found out that he and Sho had more in common as the other might know. They shared a secret, something that nobody else might understand, even if the young writer still believed that Sho wasn't exactly aware of it. He had tried to tell him, had thought about the words he could use to explain to him, but in the end he kept them to himself. He wasn't sure why but he was afraid of doing something wrong. He was afraid of scaring Sho and losing him or his sisters getting even more angry and dangerous. He had become so precious to him. However... with things as they were right now, he _had_ already lost the other man and it was his own fault.

It wasn't that he wanted the other to leave. Of course not. It wasn't true that he didn't like him, in fact, he liked him so much that sending him away was the only reasonable conclusion to the situation. He had to know that he was safe. He couldn't afford to lose another person he loved.

Ninomiya had thought about what he could do last, sleepless, night and in the end, he had found the solution. A solution he had always known to be right. If it wasn't for his thoughts about Sho, who had messed up with his heart and his determination, he wouldn't have even considered other options and maybe he would have taken action quite earlier.

“I'm sorry, Sho-kun... it's for your sake,” the young writer said, voicelessly, addressing the other in his thoughts even more intimate than usual, knowing that he would never be heard.

After making sure that he was the only one left in the house, he gathered all the necessary things from the room next to his bed room, a room usually locked, that he barely visited as he acknowledged and didn't allow anyone else to enter, except Takashima to clean once in a while. The black small family altar was set up properly, showing the faces of the people he lost in small black frames. An incense stick was there in a small bowl filled with sand. It wasn't used yet. The flower in the small vase on the other side was dead, he should have taken better care of it, he admitted. He pulled it out, replacing it with a fresh flower from the garden that he brought along.

The young man reached out to cling the bowl before lowering his head and folding his hands for a silent prayer. When he finished, he looked at the pictures again, his heart constricting painfully at the memories linked to them.

“I'm sorry for not coming here more often,” Ninomiya whispered sadly. “I'll stay for longer, this time.”

The young man then reached to his side where he had placed a bucket filled with all his necessities. He grabbed some paper and started spreading them on the floor. He took out some liquid that he spread over the paper as well as on the walls and other furniture of the room except of the altar and then reached into the bucket once more to pull out the last small tool that he would need.

His hands were shaking immensely, his heart beating like crazy and if it still mattered, he would have taken some of his medicine now but it didn't. Nothing mattered any more except the small thing he was holding in his shaking hands now.

Again, Ninomiya thought about his assistant, his companion over the last few weeks and for a moment, he hesitated. He let out a desperate sigh and gulped down a sob but in the end, he couldn't keep the tears that formed in his eyes from escaping. He turned his head then, looking at his two little sisters who were standing just behind him.

“Are you satisfied now?” he asked in a low voice. “This is what you really want, isn't it? You should be happy now. Just... keep _him_ out of this, OK?”

The twins looked at him, emotionless and the young writer knew that he had answered his own question already a long time ago. Looking back at the altar, he faced the little framed pictures of his family. _Four_ little black framed photos. The ones of his parents and the ones of his little sisters.

With his still shaking hands, he finally pushed the button of the lighter he was holding, letting it drop to the floor. Immediately, scared by the flame, he pushed himself back against the opposite wall, whimpering and curling his body in reflex to protect himself when the wetted paper started to catch the fire and the flames began to spread. His sisters, right and left of his side, started to laugh while the young man could just stare at the red and yellow monster growing in front of him, frightening him like nothing else, his weak heart racing like crazy and his cheeks wet with tears.

~*~

In the meantime, Sho and Takashima had picked up the priest, Inohara, from the temple. He was a bit confused at first but gladly agreed to come along as soon as he heard their story and their fears. Kitayama seemed to have told Fujigaya about Sho's strange behaviour after all and so Takashima received a worried call from the young cook who then insisted on going back to the Ninomiya house with them. With that, the four people were now sitting in Sho's car, driving back to the young author. It didn't take long when Takashima spotted some strange clouds on the horizon, no, it had to be smoke and they all knew pretty well where it was coming from. She immediately called the fire department and an ambulance while Sho pushed the gas pedal with even more force and the priest and Fujigaya on the back seats had to grab something in order not to lose balance.

“This is creepy, this is _so_ creepy, why did I even want to come along?” Fujigaya murmured and his face looked like a white sheet of paper.

“Because Kazunari-san is our young master, idiot. You shouldn't have insisted on coming along if you're too scared now!” Takashima scolded him, slightly hitting the young cook's shoulder.

“But a fucking exorcism? Really?!” the young man exclaimed, almost freaking out.

“Didn't you try to send them to the other world before, Takashima-san?” the priest finally spoke up, ignoring the young guy's bad language.

The woman sighed. “I suggested it more than once to Kazunari-san but he always refused. He said his sisters haunting him was his fair punishment for what happened.”

“What a stupid thought...,” Sho murmured, grinding his teeth. Not that he couldn't understand Ninomiya's way of thinking but he was sure that there was another better way to deal with the whole thing.

“Do you think, he will agree this time?” Fujigaya asked, unnerved.

“If he doesn't, he might _die_ this time and I won't allow that to happen!” Sho yelled, determined. “We have to do it, no matter what! You can help us, right, Inohara-san?”

The priest nodded. “I'll do my best.”

~*~

“Oh my God, Kazunari-san!” Takashima clasped her hands in front of her face, her eyes widened in horror as they arrived at the house and climbed out of the car.

The flames on the one side of the house had already reached the upper floor, the attic, and the clouds of smoke were building castles in the sky. The sound of creaking and breaking burnt wood made everything worse.

“Fuck!” Fujigaya yelled while Inohara took a posture of praying, his eyebrows frowned.

“Don't stand there and gasp like idiots, give me something to protect me and I'll go in there,” Sho finally said, slamming his car's door.

“Are you crazy?!” the young cook asked him, staring at Sho like he was an asylum's inhabitant.

The other looked at him irritated. “What?! What do you think I'll do, stay here and wait until help arrives? It could be too late then! Give me your jacket!”

Hurriedly, Fujigaya pulled of his jacket and Sho pulled it over his head in order to protect his hair from the fire. He inhaled deeply, collecting his thoughts. He was frightened, yes, but Ninomiya must be in there, much more frightened than he even could imagine, and he had to get him out of there. The young editor turned around, facing the priest.

“Can you do something from here? Like... praying for them to get into heaven or whatever?” he asked, a bit lost, not knowing how these spiritual things worked.

“I can try something...,” Inohara answered, not hiding that he seemed worried too. “Usually I have to _face_ them but it seems impossible for us to go inside...”

“Of course,” Sho murmured. “I try to get him out of here and I'm sure they will be with him. Prepare for then, alright?”

The priest nodded and Takashima rushed forward, putting her hand onto the young man's arm. “Sakurai-kun, please, take care!”

He nodded and took another deep breath before he finally entered the house. He put one of his sleeves to the front of his mouth, to prevent himself from breathing in the smoke that welled up to him once he opened the entrance door. He could hear the sizzling noise of the fire damaging the wood of the house, his eyes became teary from the smoke and he couldn't see much from where he stood. The fire had already spread and was slowly but surely moving along the corridor, even if it hadn't reached the kitchen, the entrance area and the dining room yet. At this point, it wouldn't be possible to get to the origin of the fire which must be somewhere on the opposite site and the place where Ninomiya would be, after all. Screaming the writer's name, Sho tried to get some sort of confirmation, but he didn't receive any answer, already fearing the worst.

“No, this can't happen now, this can't happen,” he told himself again and again in a fast rhythm. Ninomiya would be fine, for sure and he would find him and take him outside with him.

Sho burst out of the corridor into the inner garden and quickly jumped into the pond, wetting all of his clothes, his skin and hair as much as he could. From here as much as he could see through the smoky clouds, he was pretty sure that the fire's origin must be either Ninomiya's room or the room next to it, since the fire seemed to be the strongest there. Dripping wet from head to toes, he ran back through the door into the corridor. He was much more likely to reach the fire's origin through the corridor than risk spreading the fire even more when he opened another balcony door from here.

Hurriedly, he took the long way, passing the kitchen, Takashima's room, the several studies; it seemed the safest road to take. The fire grew bigger the closer he came, the smoke got heavier, the air hotter and Sho's heartbeat increased, gradually succumbing to the fear he felt about Ninomiya. Would it even be possible that the young writer could still be alive in the middle of this fire? Was it realistic?

“Ninomiya-kun!” Sho yelled desperately as he finally reached the writer's room.

The door was open and so he burst into the room but to his horror, he couldn't find the other man there. This must not have been the room where the fire started, it had to be the next room. Sho just remembered for a split second that he had never set a foot into that room before, respecting the privacy and the wish of the houses' inhabitants to stay away from it. However, this wasn't the time for such thoughts now. He pushed open the half-opened door, trying to avoid the fire on the ground and on the edges of the doorframe. The wet clothes helped, but they wouldn't work forever, he had to hurry.

Thankfully, this time he spotted Ninomiya, and his heart almost jumped out of his chest from shock as Sho saw the young man collapsed in a corner of the burning room, buried by the door of a closet or something that had broken from the room's furniture. It seemed like a miracle that the young man's clothes hadn’t caught fire yet, even if some of the flames came dangerously close. Sho hurriedly stepped through the flames on the ground, passing something that looked like a black altar. A family altar? He wasn't surprised but nevertheless terrified when he caught a short glimpse and recognized not only two but four mementos of the dead and in addition the little silhouettes of Ninomiya's sisters standing in the flames, unharmed.

He cringed, but hurried on, muting the horrifying feeling that was starting to swell up his chest. He knew now what was going on and yes, it frightened him but now wasn't the time to be terrified. He reached Ninomiya and stomped on the flames that were close to the young writer's ankle to extinguish them before lifting the piece of wood that had fallen on top of him and finally he knelt down in front of him.

Ninomiya's face was all sweaty, his skin lightly black and smutty, he seemed to have lost consciousness. At least that was what Sho hoped. Anything was better than Ninomiya being dead! He tried not to think about Ninomiya's weak health. He had to have faith! The editor reached out to the writer's face, patting his cheeks, trying to wake him.

“Ninomiya-kun! Open your eyes!” he yelled at the other before placing his wet sleeve in front of his mouth again, the smoke was drying his throat.

Then, he reached down again, putting Fujigaya's wet jacket on top of Ninomiya before lifting the man's body with both of his arms. He was so light, that it shouldn't be a problem at all to get him outside, the problem was the flames that had already grown quite huge.

Pulling all of his courage together, he ran through the flames again to exit the room, and kept running down the corridor. He held his breath for a moment when he felt an arm slowly circling around his neck and Ninomiya started coughing.

“Gosh, you're awake,” Sho whimpered, his heart feeling a lot lighter all of a sudden. He ventured looking down at the other for a second, who looked horrible.

“Why did you come back?” Ninomiya asked in a weak voice, looking at the other man, his eyes filled with countless emotions. “I sent you away... I wanted to protect you!”

Sho adjusted the younger's position, bringing him closer so that it was easier for him to hold onto the editor's body. “And _I_ want to protect _you_ , that's why I'm here.”

“You're an idiot,” Ninomiya whispered, close to his assistant’s ear.

Sho ran further, until he finally reached the entrance, jumping out of the house again, back to Takashima, Fujigaya and the priest, who were waiting for him. Takashima immediately came running, trying to check if Ninomiya was alright, wanting to help Sho to get them to the safety but the editor, kneeling down, still held the young man in his arms. Fujigaya's knees went weak and he collapsed onto the ground, letting out a deep sigh of relief. The priest seemed to be reciting some kind of prayer.

“ _You_ are the idiot!” Sho immediately scolded the man in his arms as soon as they had arrived outside. He brushed his dirty face with his still a little wet sleeve, cleaning it slightly. “You scared me to death! Don't do something so selfish, your life doesn't belong only to you!”

Ninomiya looked at him, seemingly lost. “But... they are all dead... my parents, my sisters...”

“You forgot that you have _me_ now, I need you _here_ with me, you get it?! Not dead!” Sho was close to tears, his body shaking slightly.

“You'll be in danger if you're close to me,” Ninomiya's eyes were wet too as he looked at his saviour.

Sho shook his head, determined. “I don't believe that you're a jinx. You're a lovely person and it's not your fault that something so horrible happened to your family in the past. I won't die, I'll stay with you forever.”

Ninomiya's heart cringed again and he sobbed. “But my sisters... they wanted to kill you!”

“They won't try it again, we'll take care of them now, look!” the young editor said, pointing at the entrance of the house, surrounded in flames.

Priest Inohara who was still facing it, stopped his prayer, turning to the others. “I opened a gate and it seems like now there aren't only two but four souls waiting to departure,” he said. “I cannot see them, but I feel their presence.”

Ninomiya widened his eyes as he took a closer look at something that seemed to be a shadow in the flames, coming closer. Sho looked at the same spot, and as expected, he was able to see the same things.

“My sisters _and_ my parents...,” Ninomiya finally whispered in tears, bringing one of his hands up to his lips as the silhouettes came closer, taking a clearer form with each step. He couldn't believe it. He had never seen his parents' spirits, no matter how much he had wished to meet them. His skin was covered in goose bumps. “You can see them too, Sakurai-kun, right?”

“I can,” the other gulped. Now that he knew that for the whole time he had actually been able to see ghosts, he felt a bit strange but seeing Ninomiya's parents standing there, their hands linked with their little girls and flashing a smile at their son, made him feel kind of warm inside.

“Kazu,” the woman with shoulder long black hair said in a low voice. “Please, stop blaming yourself. Nothing of this was your fault and it was our decision to save you. Please don't throw away your life, you're too young and there are many good things to come, believe me.”

“Okaa-san,” Ninomiya sobbed, his tears smearing his sooty face. “Otou-san...”

“Sakurai-kun, please take care of our boy,” the young writer's father finally said. Sho nodded, enthusiastically.

Then for the first time ever, he actually heard the little girls _talking_. They looked at their brother, for once their faces not as angry and scary as Sho remembered. “Onii-chan, we're sorry for all the trouble,” one girl said. “We finally found Okaa-san and Otou-san again, we'll go with them now,” said the other.

Ninomiya nodded. Then under the praying voice of the priest, his parents as well as his sisters' silhouettes slowly but surely started to blur more and more, until they vanished into thin air. Sho could do nothing against the writer's heart-breaking sobbing, who allowed all of his emotions to break free now. He tightened the grip around Sho, hiding his face against the editor's neck and the latter could feel the hot tears wetting his skin. He pressed the other as close as possible, finally pulling him into a tight embrace to offer him some comfort and just allowed him to continue crying like a child.

Just when Sho heard the approaching sound of the fire brigade and the ambulance that Takashima had called some time ago, he suddenly felt Ninomiya's weight slumping against his body, the sobbing stopped. Shocked, he looked at the man in his embrace, finding his eyes closed.

“No, no no no, please, no! Ninomiya-kun! Are you kidding me?!” the young editor yelled at the man who must have lost consciousness again. Sho panicked. “Come on, open your eyes! Don't joke with me now! Ninomiya-kun! KAZUNARI!”

~*~

Sho sighed in relief once the doctors at the hospital told him that Ninomiya would be perfectly fine again in a few days. He had lost consciousness due to the huge amount of stress he had went through, most likely the shock from the fire and so his body just surrendered to sleep, he needed that desperately. It shouldn't be forgotten that he had a weak heart after all but considering everything, it was a miracle that he wasn't in a worse condition. He would probably wake up as soon as he got enough rest. This could be in a few hours, maybe in one or two days. The slight smoke poisoning he was suffering from would also be cured soon. A load fell off Sho's chest as soon as he knew the young man's life safe.

The young editor was convinced that as soon as Ninomiya was awake again, they would have to settle things between them. Sho loved him, that was for sure. He loved the young writer even more than he thought he would, that stroke him clearly when he realised Ninomiya was in danger. Of course, the editor would prefer if their relationship wouldn't be limited to just work, like the way it used to be, and he would like to continue from where they had stopped during the late summer festival. Ninomiya hadn't rejected him, he had even admitted that he liked Sho and he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect him from his sisters. Sho was really hoping now that the author would accept him in his life, despite all the negative memories of the people surrounding him during the last couple of weeks and eventually leading to the incident.

Sho was present when Ninomiya finally woke up the next day and the first thing the young writer did was to throw his arms around the young editor's neck, pressing him close. Sho's heart was beating fast, at least as fast as Ninomiya's, which he could feel bumping heavily against his ribcage. Embracing the other tightly, Sho realized that a few tears of happiness and relief were running down his cheeks and he smiled when he heard the other man sobbing against his neck again.

“Crybaby...,” Sho whispered, brushing his hand through the writer's hair.

“You turned me into this,” the other replied and his pouting lips tickled the skin at Sho's neck, causing him to giggle.

“Did I?”

“Yes,” the other sobbed slightly before drawing back and wiping away his tears. “Now you have to deal with it.”

Sho smiled, taking Ninomiya's hands in his, pressing them slightly. “I don't mind. If you accept me.”

“You still like me?” the writer asked, suddenly turning shy.

The editor nodded firmly. “Of course, I do.”

“You're really weird, for liking such a strange person like me,” Ninomiya murmured.

“Maybe,” the other grinned.

“I really like you after all,” Ninomiya said in a low voice, his face flushed red. He then looked up to the other man again, meeting his eyes. “Can I ask you to stay with me?”

“That's what I was hoping for. Sure, I will,” Sho smiled even wider and he finally couldn't hold back any longer, leaning forward a little to cup the writer's face and brush his lips against Ninomiya's.

The young writer let go of one of the editor's hands, just to lift it up to touch his face in return and pull him closer, deepening the kiss. The love he felt toward that man at that moment was overwhelming and he knew that finally he was ready to accept what the other was willing to offer him. Trust, support, happiness and love.

~*~

Until they would find a new place to live, Sho as well as Takashima, and of course Ninomiya as soon as he got released from the hospital, had planned to live in the hotel in the village. But Fujigaya offered his place for them to stay for a while, even if he was sharing a not too big place with his roommate Kitayama. Nevertheless, for the time being, it would be sufficient and it definitely felt better staying close to the people they knew and liked.

Both, Takashima and Fujigaya planned to resume their work for Ninomiya once the new household was settled and the writer continued paying their normal salary willingly until that day, since he didn't intend to replace them either. Since Ninomiya had been the one who set the fire, of course, the insurance wouldn't pay a single yen as damage compensation but Sho was sure that money wasn't a problem for the successful writer. Takashima and Fujigaya had been his support since years now; they had lived with him through good and bad times. Takashima had been the one encouraging the young man to offer his stories to a publishing company years ago, while Fujigaya had always made sure that he lived with a healthy diet.

After another proper talk with them, Sho finally found out the whole truth. Ninomiya had lost his parents as well as his sisters in a fire some years ago. It had been an accident; the fire broke out from the kitchen in the middle of the night due to a defective cable. It was almost too late when the family finally woke up and realized what was happening. Ninomiya's father had tried to get his son, who suffered from weak health and was unable to flee from the house by himself. On their way outside, the two of them were knocked down by a burning, wooden pillar. Ninomiya's mother then, had somehow managed to free her son and brought him outside, protecting him from the fire and smoke with her body, successfully. She tried to get inside again, to get her two little girls, but collapsed before she was able to. She was so badly hurt that she died shortly after arriving in the hospital, a result from her burns. When help finally arrived, it had been already been too late for her husband too and sadly, the young girls had died from smoke poisoning and were already dead when they were brought out of the house. Ninomiya Kazunari, even if stigmatized with a huge burn on his back, survived, despite his weak heart. It was a miracle that not the whole family did fall victim to the fire.

The young man, still a teenager back then, had been on his own after that, and as soon as he had recovered from the shock, some relatives, his aunt and uncle were appointed to take care of him until he reached legal age. They soon found the young man behaving very strangely, talking to people who didn't exist, suffering from terrible nightmares, unable to deal with his family's death. They almost admitted him to an asylum, convinced that he had gone crazy due to the loss, but then, Ninomiya had turned 20 and was able to move out on his own. With the inheritance from his parents, he was able to rent an apartment and Takashima, who was originally working for Ninomiya's aunt and uncle, decided to stay with the young man to support him, despite his strange behaviour. With the discovery of his writing talent, after just a few years, they were able to move somewhere bigger and decided on the house in the countryside, far away from Ninomiya's relatives and his old life and soon, Fujigaya joined the household.

It wasn't like he and Takashima were able to _see_ Ninomiya's sisters, but they had believed in their existence and accepted it, trying to act along with the situation as much as possible. They were very surprised when Sho (who still didn't know where this ability came from) had shown up and obviously was able to see them. So far, this was the first time someone else other than Ninomiya was able to do so. It was clear that this could be the one reason for the young editor to become the writer's confident, maybe his strongest support, as for Ninomiya, it had been hard at first to open up to someone. It seemed that his sisters, whose spirits hadn't been able to enter the next world, since they weren't able to understand and accept what had happened to them in the fire, threatened their brother. They thought that he didn't deserve to live, since all of them had died. And he especially didn't deserve to live happily. If Sho would bring him happiness, the girls might want to hurt him.

Strangely, Sho could somehow understand their way of thinking. They had been children after all, innocent children pulled out from life, losing their parents and only one of the siblings was allowed to live. The unfairness and tragedy had poisoned their little minds, making them obsessed over the thought that their brother should suffer too, for the rest of his life. He also understood why Ninomiya had sent him away after they almost met an accident with the car, caused by the twins; he had interpreted it as a warning and seen it as a necessity to make Sho and the others leave in order to protect them.

But now everything was over and Sho never intended to leave Ninomiya's side anyway. He had decided to stay with him, no matter what their future would bring them.

~*~

A few days later, Sho and Ninomiya went back to the house to check what was left after the fire and if they could still find some things they could use. When the young writer climbed out of Sho's car and approached the remains of his home, lying there covered in ashes and dust, in the middle of the poppy fields, it felt strange, of course. Parts of the house were completely crushed, while others looked almost intact. It hurt to see the once so beautiful house in such a state.

Sho went through the house's ruins, entering the rooms that seemed safe and not too damaged so that he wouldn’t get hurt by breaking through the floor or similar happenings. The library was almost completely gone; the countless books had surely set a good fodder for the fire. But the editor was lucky and miraculously found some of Ninomiya's completed manuscript paper in a heavy drawer in one of the not so damaged studies. He took it with him, carefully, as if he had found a treasure, and kept on searching for a few more things.

In the meantime, the young writer set his feet slowly onto the brown grass of the once impressive, green garden that had suffered a lot too, almost burnt down to the ground. The bushes' leaves were gone, most of the flowers dead. But when one looked closely, not everything was lost. After taking a few more steps forward, Ninomiya finally stopped, his gaze glued to something on the ground. He found hope.

“Sho-kun,” the young writer called out for his partner who showed up immediately, with a bunch of dusty but still usable things in his arm. The author turned to face him, standing there in front of a bunch of poppies, blossoming as if nothing had happened. “Do you think, we can rebuild our home here?”

Sho smiled genuinely. “I'm sure, we can.”

And Ninomiya smiled back, knowing that his nightmares now had found an end.

 

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> PS: Full PDF-Version of this can be found here:  
> http://www.mediafire.com/file/l18goc3nz5x5a4b/sky_fish7_The+House+in+the+Poppy+Fields.pdf


End file.
